30 years ago, (1991) the Albanians of Montenegro were in danger of being massacred like they had at the massacre of Tivar in 1945, when over 4,000 Albanians were killed by Serbs.

Around 750 young men from the area of ​​Ane e Malit, Ulqin and several other villages with Albanians in Montenegro when it was still part of Yugoslavia gathered on the top of Sutorman mobilized for war as reservists for the war initiated by Serbia.

They made one of the first resistances to the armed Serbian army even though their lives were at risk. The young men were sent to Sutorman, unarmed and without sufficient food, unlike the Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers who were well supplied.

One morning, the commander gave the order that they had to go to the Bosnian border to fight against Croatia, but the young Albanians did not accept this order because they knew that it was a trap and that they would not return alive. They had learned from the Serbian massacre of the Albanians of Tivari in 1945. Even though the documents were missing, this event of Sutorman 1991 was commemorated 30 years later in the cinema hall of the village of Katërkolla in Montenegro.

One of the witnesses of that event, Haxhi Sulejmani, tells how they did not carry out the commander’s order to go to war supposedly against the Croats on the Bosnian border because they had understood that it was a setup where they would not return alive.

On one side, the Serbo-Montenegrin army of the former Yugoslavia had surrounded the Albanian reservists, while on the other side, their parents and relatives had gathered from all the villages, but in the middle, the army cordon separated them. One of the parents of Ethem Behari at the time, who gave a speech to the commander and Serbian soldiers, shows that they were ready to die. Quoted:

“If I am not like a parent, I am like a brother and if my brother dies here, then the commander will put a bullet in his forehead and I will find you even if you hide in a mouse hole”.

The author of this documentary, Hajredin Zeneli, a former reservist in Sutorman 1991, says that this event is unforgettable for those who experienced it.

For many years, the event of Sutorman 1991 has not dared to be mentioned by Albanians in Montenegro, even after the Montenegrins seceded from the former Yugoslav federation due to the pressures and persecution that continued for many years. Even today, Albanians in Montenegro do not have the position they deserve due to discriminatory policies, although 30 years have passed.

References

https://www.starplus-tv.com/mali-i-zi-si-i-rezistuan-750-shqiptare-ushtrise-serbe-ne-1991/