Strasbourg Court Rejects Wartime Deportation Case Against Montenegro

Montenegrin government representatives, civic activists and victims' families at the wartime deportation commemoration ceremony in Herceg Novi. Photo: Center for Civic Education.

On May 25 and 27, 1992, the Bosniaks and Serbs were illegally detained and brought to the police headquarters in Herceg Novi, near the border with Bosnia, from where they were deported on buses to Bosnian Serb-controlled territory.

They were sent to a detention camp in Foca in eastern Bosnia. Only a few survived, and the remains of most of the dead have never been found.

In January 2018, members of the victims' families brought their case to the ECHR in Strasbourg, complaining that the Montenegrin authorities did not mount an effective investigation into the crime.

However, the ECHR said in its ruling that the Montenegrin authorities "acknowledged in substance a breach of the European Human Rights Convention in both criminal and civil proceedings" connected to the crime.

"Authorities provided the applicants with redress in the form of compensation amounting to a total of 165,000 euros, following which the applicants confirmed that they had thereby been completely compensated for all damage caused by the death of their next-of-kin and had waived all other possible future claims for compensation on those grounds," the court decision added.

In December 2008. a court settlement with 200 relatives of the victims and several survivors was reached after nearly four years of litigation.

Montenegro paid a total of 4,135,000 euros in compensation to the families for the illegal actions of the police in deporting their relatives.

In 2013, families of the victims sued Montenegro at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, claiming that the...