December 10, 2019 - A seven-member team led by the Minister of Culture, Aleksandar Bogdanovic and Boka Navy Admiral Anton Sbutega is attending a conference of the UNESCO Intangible Heritage Committee, held in Bogota, Colombia, from 9 to 14 December. They will provide additional explanations and information regarding the listing of the Boka Navy on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
"The Evaluation Body, composed of experts who are not members of the UNESCO Intangible Heritage Committee, considered our candidacy valid, but made a few comments, and asked for additional explanations that the Montenegrin delegation should provide to the UNESCO Committee who meets in Bogota December 9-14. This is unusual because these explanations may have been requested earlier, but this has not been done. It is undisputed that there is a strong lobby that is trying to thwart the success of our candidacy," Boka Navy Admiral Antun Sbutega told BokaNews.
He recalled the problems that arose from the political and media campaign launched on the occasion of the Montenegrin candidacy of the Boka Navy 809 Kotor in Croatia, as well as by some Croats and organizations gathering Croats in Montenegro. This campaign challenged Montenegro's right to propose the Navy on its own. The forces, as mentioned above, consider this supranational organization primarily as a heritage of the Croatian people in Boka Kotorska and accordingly consider that in Croatia and Montenegro, they had to apply together with the Boka Navy as an intangible cultural property of global importance.
By the way, the Boka Navy 809 Kotor does not recognize affiliates which, with the prefix Croatian Brotherhood of the Boka Navy 809 Kotor, operate in several Croatian cities, precisely because the Navy has always been a supranational organization of the bokelian people since its inception.
The Montenegrin delegation to Bogota is composed of Minister of Culture Aleksandar Bogdanovic, Director of the Directorate of Cultural Heritage Aleksandar Dajkovic, Secretary of the Montenegrin UNESCO Commission Milica Nikolic, Director General of the Directorate for Multilateral Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Veljko Milonic, Director of the Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Property Božidar Bozovic, Navy Admiral, Antun Sbutega and Director of the Maritime Museum of Montenegro Andro Radulovic.
Source: BokaNews
