Momir Bulatovic in the Montenegrin Legislature

Back to Square One

While Slobodan Milosevic was at the helm of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, his servant from Montenegro in the capacity of federal prime minister, Momir Bulatovic, claimed that "the Boss" was "FRY's fate." In the wake of the "Bulldozer Revolution," Bulatovic silently returned home, as if nothing had happened

AIM Podgorica, December 24, 2000

Although over one month had passed since the verification of his seat in the Montenegrin Legislature, Momir Bulatovic appeared there on Nov. 22. Formally the leader of the until recently pro-Milosevic Socialist People's Party (in reality, this office has been taken over by the party vice president, Predrag Bulatovic), he took the legislature seat vacated by his party colleague who, meanwhile, had been appointed federal minister in Belgrade.

Bulatovic, 12 years after coming to power in an "anti-bureaucratic revolution," returned to "the scene of the crime" -- to the Montenegrin Legislature where his political star shone for the first time. This time around, however, he does not appear charismatic, but somewhat exhausted and spent instead. The aura of Slobodan Milosevic no longer lingers over Montenegro, and his protege has to adjust to the new circumstances.

Milosevic's host at a rally in Berane marking the end of the Socialist party's election campaign in September, whom he then described as "the current and future FRY president," after the election fraud in Belgrade and the "bulldozer revolution" of Oct. 5, Bulatovic remained silent for quite some time. Unlike his deputies he did not congratulate Vojislav Kostunica, nor did he resign from his party position and leave it to Predrag Bulatovic. He failed to muster the strength to realize what he had been so loudly announcing at the height of the election campaign -- that regardless of the election results, he and Milosevic would remain in office until the end of their terms. Now, he has nothing to say about the coalition his party has formed with those it used to call "NATO lackeys." He speaks even less of whether he will share Milosevic's fate -- all the way to The Hague, or will rather wash his hands once more and turn towards his beloved people to arouse their faith in his new mustache, which, in all honesty, is lacking in historic continuity.

Only recently did Bulatovic tell the Sarajevo weekly newspaper Dani that he had tied his fate to Milosevic (Sept. 1, 2000): "Some think this is unfortunate, but our 10 years of cooperation have given me enormous pleasure. We resolve problems every day. Everyone believes that I am an obedient servant of Slobodan Milosevic. That is my fate, I am but his good assistant, because I view him as a man more than open to arguments."

Bulatovic owes his political career to Milosevic. This is why he was ready to blindly follow him to the very last. Since he has burned all his bridges in Montenegro, it was the only logical outcome. When Milosevic cheated in elections in Serbia for the first time, at the end of 1996, Bulatovic knew what was going on. Wisely, though, he shut his mouth for over one month, watching the students being beaten in the streets of Belgrade. When, however, it became obvious that the world would not buy Milosevic's story, he gave an interview to the Paris Le Figaro, accusing the Serbian regime of election fraud, but absolving Milosevic from any responsibility. Then he supported the students and protests organized by the Serbian opposition, but played the part of Milosevic's spokesman, transmitting his messages to the international public. According to his version, it was the press that was to blame for everything.

Bulatovic personally took part in Milosevic's latest vote theft by bringing 180,000 signatures in support of "the Boss" from Montenegro. As a precaution, he prevented any verification of voter rolls from being carried out in Montenegro for the federal elections. The verification had been prearranged by the vice presidents of his party, Zoran Zizic and Predrag Bulatovic, and Montenegrin Premier Filip Vujanovic, as a condition for official Montenegro to allow balloting to be held at polling places in state institutions. Thus, anyone could vote as many times as he or she pleased.

There were no transparent ballot boxes, dyes visible under ultraviolet lamps, coupons, nobody had to sign anything; yet all of this they had ensured for themselves in republican elections under the Djukanovic regime. Still, however, hardly 20 percent of the Montenegrin electorate turned out in the Bulatovic-sponsored election!

In an interview in the party newspaper Dan, Momir Bulatovic now says that what is at work in Montenegro is "state-sponsored plunder." "The conditions Montenegro faces are terrible in an economic sense. There are erroneous and senseless ideas of a referendum, as if this will solve all our problems. Our problems, however, have nothing to do with that status of Montenegro, but have been generated by an irresponsible and devastating government," says Bulatovic, otherwise a proponent of the idea that "Yugoslavia has no alternative and should be accepted unconditionally."

This is what the author of the famous three-line question prepared for the 1992 referendum which led Montenegro into Yugoslavia without a similar referendum in Serbia says now. Back then, Bulatovic offered the impossible -- both to preserve Montenegro's sovereignty and the common state, and his question was the following: "Are you in favor of having Montenegro, as a sovereign republic, continue being part of a common country, Yugoslavia, fully equal to all other republics that would like to be part of it?" That this was but a pure deception confirms the fact that nine years after the referendum was held, in a recent survey no one could remember how the referendum question was worded.

Then, Momir Bulatovic was brutally direct when speaking to the Legislature as Montenegrin president, when he admitted that one could always manipulate a referendum by formulating the question so as to suggest his preference.

Today Momir Bulatovic is against a new Montenegrin referendum. He and his party, assisted by Kostunica from Belgrade, are continuously making new psychological, media and legal preconditions for the new plebiscite. "It should be admitted that other preconditions are today a bit hard to achieve," ironically says a columnist of the independent magazine Monitor, Esad Kocan. "It is impossible, for the sake of a proper pre-referendum atmosphere, to once more destroy Vukovar, plunder Konavle, or kill Bosnia; it is impossible to revive Slobodan Milosevic in full strength and equipment. Who knows, maybe the leaders of the Socialist People's Party have deeply in their hearts admitted that their own deeds are pressing them like an avalanche."

It will be interesting to hear what Momir Bulatovic, as a deputy in the Montenegrin Legislature, will say of the new government in Belgrade that has speedily established diplomatic relations with the "NATO aggressor." Will he condemn as traitors and Madeleine Albright's proteges his own party after it created a coalition with the "NATO lackeys?" Will he say their outstretched hand that begs for loans and assistance throughout the world is a personal humiliation and a humiliation of the FRY, using the same rhetoric he had used for years against Djukanovic?

Momir Bulatovic's story has been told. He recently boasted that in the White House, when he could still visit, he once said: "The most difficult task in the world is to defend Milosevic from you, but, gentlemen, you are talking to his lawyer." To survive in his party and on the Montenegrin political scene, however, after all his acrobatics, Momir Bulatovic will probably have to forget his memories from the White House. Especially when it comes to putting things in order in one's own house -- and bearing responsibility for having served a dictator.

Branko Vojicic

(AIM)