The Parliamentary Committee for the Political System, Judiciary and Administration accepted today the proposals to initiate parliamentary investigations into the cases of the railway accident in Bioč in 2006 and the police operation “Flight of the Eagle”.
These two proposals were adopted by the board unanimously.
Regarding the accident on Bioč, Member of Parliament for Europe Now (PES) Jelenka Andrić said that as a society we owe clear answers to all those who lost their loved ones in that train.
“It is the biggest tragedy that has happened to Montenegrin society in recent history. We expect the Inquiry Committee to provide answers to the questions that torment the families of the victims and the injured. The Committee should not judge and judge, but rather try to create a clear picture of that accident. I believe that we will gain new knowledge not only about the circumstances of the accident but also what happened later. Let’s say whether humanitarian aid reached the people at that time and whether the Government fulfilled the promises it made at that time,” she said. Andrić.
URA MP Zoran Mikić said that trust is built through transparency. He stated that all systemic failures that accompanied this major train accident must be investigated.
In the accident in January 2006, 47 people died and more than 200 were injured. The tragedy happened when the local electric train, which was traveling from Bijelo Polje to Podgorica and Bar, near the town of Bioče, on the way out of the tunnel, derailed. All four wagons crashed into a ravine.
The accident happened around 4:00 p.m., when passenger train number 671, which was traveling on the route Bijelo Polje-Podgorica, derailed in the Morača canyon and crashed down a steep slope. There were hundreds of passengers on the train, including schoolchildren, students, workers and families returning to their homes.
In 2009, the Council of the Higher Court in Podgorica confirmed the first-instance verdict by which train driver Slobodan Drobnjak was sentenced to six years in prison as the sole culprit for a serious railway accident. In addition, the High Court confirmed the acquittal of 11 other accused managers of the Railway and noted that no significant violations of the provisions of the criminal procedure were committed in the process of passing the verdict.
No one from the management of the Railway and the Government was held accountable for this accident.
When it comes to the “Flight of the Eagle” action, Nikola Camaj (Albanian Forum) said at today’s board meeting that the truth will be revealed about the actions in that case, to the detriment of the people who contributed greatly to the success of the referendum in 2006.
That police action, he emphasized, was marked by a great deal of torture against Albanians.
“Not only on the people who were allegedly guilty, but also on their families. As a result of the torture, three elderly people died soon. There was a great injustice against the citizens who made a great contribution to make Montenegro an independent country,” said Camaj.
According to the proposal, the survey committee should collect information and facts about the actions of state authorities and other subjects during the police operation “Flight of the Eagle”, carried out on September 9, 2006.
The Proposal states that the circumstances under which the action was carried out have not been fully clarified even after almost two decades, and that there is a need to establish the facts about the actions of state institutions towards members of the Albanian community during that period.
The proponents point out that there are serious doubts that certain state bodies, above all the former Ministry of Interior and the State Security Service, acted illegally.
The explanation states that during the operation, according to available evidence and media reports, members of the Albanian community were subjected to persecution, arrests and forced emigration, which raised doubts about the legality of the work of the state authorities at the time.
“It is necessary to launch a parliamentary investigation in order to determine the facts and the responsibility of individuals who made or implemented decisions during the operation,” the explanation states.
In 2006, the police announced that they had established suspicions that 14 persons of Albanian nationality, who were arrested in early September of that year, created a secret organization with the help of financiers from the diaspora whose goal was the violent regionalization of space and the execution of terrorist actions.
