September the 29th, 2025 – On the 29th of September 1991, Montenegrin admiral Vladimir Barović opted to shoot himself instead of shooting at Dalmatia as an aggressor.
As Index vijesti/news writes, Montenegrin admiral Vladimir Barović took his own life on the island of Vis as a result of the vile aggression of the JNA and Montenegrin reservists against Croatia. According to him, this was an act that was completely contrary to Montenegrin honour, and that he would sooner turn his gun on himself than turn it on Croatia.
Admiral Vladimir Barović, who was the commander of the Navy for the Istrian region, took his own life on this day back in 1991 after refusing to follow through on an order to bomb coastal towns in Croatia. In his farewell letter, which was penned during his time on the island of Vis, where the command post of the former Yugoslav Navy was then located, Barović clearly stated the reasons that led him to this act.
The main reason was the unreasonable aggression of the JNA and Montenegrin reservists against Croatia, which, in Admiral Barović’s opinion, was an act contrary to the traditional Montenegrin concept of honour. Barović took his own life in the face of his own impotence in preventing the actions of the JRM destroying Croatian cities and because of his complete disagreement with the decisions of the former JNA high command.
“the only bullet montenegro can ever be proud of”
Vladimir Barović decided to take his own life at a time when it was clear to even the most optimistic people that war would, at that point, be impossible to avoid. Barović, like many others at that time, could have taken the easy way and blindly carried out orders from the JNA, which at that time was already fully at the service of bent-minded warlord Slobodan Milošević.
At a time when a good part of Montenegro totally supported the criminal policy from Belgrade, and some joined it, destroying and looting Dubrovnik, Vladimir Barović talked about the honour within him that simply prevented him from shelling and waging war on people who had done nothing to him.
He was buried in Herceg Novi, and at the time of his death he was only 52 years old.
“The only bullet fired in this war that Montenegro can be proud of is that of Admiral Vladimir Barović, the commander of the JRM. His Montenegrin sense of honour did not allow him to issue an order to the fleet to bomb coastal towns and settlements in Dalmatia when he was ordered to do so,” wrote Montenegrin writer Momir M. Marković in 1996.
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