Mamula

BELGRADE - Serbian Defence Minister Milos Vucevic met with UK special Western Balkans envoy Stuart Peach on Monday.

They discussed defence cooperation and Vucevic looked back on the most important past activities in that domain, the MoD said in a statement.

FOTO TANJUG/MINISTARSTVO ODBRANE/ JOVO MAMULA

FOTO TANJUG/MINISTARSTVO ODBRANE/ JOVO MAMULA

Former Yugoslav Navy Fleet Admiral Branko Mamula in 1977. Photo: Private archive of Branko Mamula.

Born into a Serb family in Croatia in 1921, Mamula became a member of the Communist Party in his youth. At the start of Yugoslavia's involvement in World War II in 1941, he joined the Partisan resistance movement led by Josip Broz Tito.

The Swiss-Egyptian investor in the controversial plans to turn former prison camp into a hotel, has insisted it will preserve the camp's hertage.

Orascom company pledged that the 15 million euro project to convert the Mamula fort into a luxury resort will fully respect the history of the now largely-abandoned site.

A WWII Nazi concentration camp on the island of Mamula where prisoners were tortured and starved will be transformed into a luxury resort which will include a nightclub and spa.

The island is located near Montenegro’s border with Croatia in the Adriatic Sea at the entrance of the Bay of Kotor. Its formal name is Lastavica, but it is widely known as Mamula.

A parliamentary committee on Wednesday refused to support government plans to lease out the island of Lastavica and the Mamula fort in Boka Bay, which opposition parties have slated as a corrupt deal.

The proposal to offer the Austro-Hungarian fortress to a private firm to turn into a luxury tourist complex received the support of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists.

A Montenegrin opposition politician on Wednesday accused the government of treating the nation's cultural heritage as "market goods" after the Austro-Hungarian Mamula fortress on the coast was offered on a lease for a luxury tourist complex.

Montenegro's Council for Privatisation, chaired by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, on Monday unveiled an ambitious privatisation plan for 2015, aiming to attract more foreign investment.