MEPs on Mandić: “Mladić deserves no honor — he knew what reaction it would provoke”; expect fair vote on Sept 24

A group of MEPs, led by the rapporteur for Montenegro Marjan Šarec, has issued a statement regarding this week’s scheduled vote in the Parliament of Montenegro on the dismissal of its speaker, Andrija Mandić. The statement was also joined by MEPs Tomas Weiss, Reinhold Lopatka, Vladimir Prebilič and Kostas Mavrides.

The MEPs stress that Ratko Mladić was convicted by the UN Tribunal for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and therefore deserves no honor — especially in the face of the Srebrenica genocide. “We cannot agree with his action as speaker,” the statement says, adding that Mandić knew exactly what reaction his official condolence message to Mladić’s family would provoke.

According to them, although the message was formally sent in a personal capacity, it carries institutional weight, because Mandić remains the speaker of parliament. The glorification of war criminals, the MEPs stress, has no place in the values of the European Union, and such actions do not help Montenegro in the current phase of its EU accession process.

In the end, they express hope that the vote will be fair and that every deputy will vote according to his conscience, adding that they will respect any result that emerges from the vote of the Montenegrin deputies.

Source: Dan