Cetinje Residents Paid Tribute to Victims of January 1st Massacre

(Patria) - Several hundred citizens paid tribute tonight in Cetinje to the 13 victims killed in the massacre that occurred a month ago, reports RSE.

Citizens lit candles in front of the Lovćenska vila monument and held a thirteen-minute silence for the 13 victims, killed on January 1st.

- We will not and must not forget 23 human lives - said Cetinje student Anđela Ivanović.

In two mass murders in Cetinje, in August 2022 and January 2025, 23 people were killed, including four children.

The tribute was organized by the student group "Kamo śutra" (Where Tomorrow), which has been holding protests in Podgorica since the beginning of the year, demanding that Prime Minister Milojko Spajić dismiss the Minister of Internal Affairs Danilo Šaranović and the Deputy Prime Minister for Security Aleksa Bečić due to police failures on January 1st.

The police searched for the perpetrator, Aco Martinović, for almost six hours at the time of the murders. He committed suicide after killing 13 people in several locations in the city.

The student group has given the Prime Minister until February 1st to respond to their demands.

Spajić rejected the students' request in his response, stating that "resignation is an act of moral and objective responsibility," and that all members of the Government are "subject to change after an analysis of their performance".

He did not state when the performance analysis of his government members would be completed.

The ruling Democrats claim that criminal groups and the opposition close to the former President of the Democratic Party of Socialists, Milo Đukanović, are behind the protests demanding the resignations of their officials Bečić and Šaranović. The student group "Kamo śutra" denied this.

In addition to the ministers' resignations, they are also demanding reform of police structures, confiscation of illegal weapons, better mental health care, and the return of civic education as a mandatory subject in schools.

After the second mass murder, the Government prepared a draft law on weapons and ammunition, despite stricter measures in this area being requested after the first mass murder in August 2022.

In Montenegro, which has 620,000 inhabitants, there are over 100,000 legal firearms and up to 80,000 illegal ones.

The Prime Minister announced that from the mass murder in Cetinje on January 1st to January 27th, citizens voluntarily surrendered 1,535 firearms, over 50,000 rounds of ammunition, and about 150 hand grenades to the police.

"Kamo śutra" has organized three protests so far, with thousands of citizens supporting them. The students have also received public support from hundreds of professors, cultural workers, engineers, athletes, and activists.