DEJA VU

The leadership of the Party of Democratic Action in Montenegro arrested

Summary: In just a couple of days, State Security Service of Montenegro arrested the entire leadership of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) in Montenegro. The reason - revealed weapons and plans for "the secession of Sandzak from Montenegro and Yugoslavia". Despite the publicity Montenegrin police in cooperation with the state media gave to the event, the key question remains to be answered: did the leaders of the SDA arm themselves with the intention to threaten the integrity of the FRY or in fear of various paramilitary troops, and are they just victims of the global resolution of the Yugoslav crisis.

TEXT:

Ever since the times of the ill-famous Information Bureau, when the state freed itself of Stalin's supporters, the Montenegrin police has not, in a single blow, revealed such a large number of enemies of this state. In the past few days, it succeeded in arresting the entire leadership of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), and almost all the heads of its municipal membership.

The series of the arrests started in Rozaje on January 25, when, as claimed by eye-witnesses, fully armed members of special police units, supported logistically by six jeeps, arrested 63-year-old Professor Rasim Sahman, Secretary of the SDA for Montenegro and former deputy in the Republican Parliament. The very same day, Omer Omerovic, member of the Executive Board of this Party in the town, was also arrested, and the folowing day, Erdzan Fetahovic, the Chiarman of the "Merhamet" Humanitarian Society was taken into custody. Like in a game of dominoes, the arrest of Harun Hadzic, President of the SDA for Montenegro in Kolasin followed. At the moment of the arrest, he was on his way back from Podgorica, where he had travelled to find out something about the destiny of the already arrested. It did not help him in any way that he was even received by Filip Vujanovic, a Minister in the Government of Montenegro.

In a swift police action, in the meanwhile, Rifat Veskovic was arrested, also a former deputy in the Parliament of Montenegro and a member of the highest ladership of the SDA, as well as Mevludin Kasumovic, Hakija Muratovic, and Isak Skenderovic. Although virtual panic spread in the Northern part of Montenegro among the members of the SDA, the police did not find it fit to inform the public of what was happening until several days passed. In a special TV programme, at a most popular hour, some of the accused were shown digging up hidden weapons. The state Security Service of Montenegro stated that the accused were deprived of freedom because "there is a founded suspicion that they have committed the crime of threatening territorial integrity of Yugoslavia and that the accused intended to create an "indepenedent state of Sandzak" by armed force". The weapons found in possession of all the accused were also shown on TV: two machine-guns, nine automatic "Kalashnykov" guns, two mortars, two pistols, one "scorpion" gun, several bombs and a quantity of industrial explosives and some ammunition.

NEW ARRESTS

After this "first blow", the police began new arrests. Umen Hadzic, a close relative of Harun Hadzic, was arrested in Rozaje with several other persons. Sefket Brkovic and Rizen Burzanovic, the President and the Vice-president of the SDA in this town, were taken into custody with several activists of the Party. Simultaneously with the police action in Montenegro, an even more comprehensive action was taken in the Serbian part of Sandzak. According to what representatives of the SDA claim, only in Prijepolje, the Serbian police arrested more than a hundred citizens of Muslim nationality and searched more than fifty homes in just a couple of days. Just like in Montenegro, the arrests continue there, but with a single difference: only members of the SDA are arrested and not the leadership of this Party for Serbia.

The police certainly deserves to be commended if it truly and sincerely intends to take away illegally possessed weapons and prevent armament of the citizens according to party membership. But, the argument still stands that they did not manifest such keeness and principled readiness when Seselj's Radicals were taking over Pljevlja, when the homes and shops owned by citizens of Muslim nationality were blown up, or when the Muslims were kidnapped from trains... Or, for instance, State Security Service of Montenegro accuses Rasim Sahman of having established the security department within the SDA and of being the head of this department, and on the other hand, it calmly overhears the claims of the Head of the Deputies of the Radicals in Montenegrin Parliament that this Party has its own information service... Thus, it turns out that the arrests of the leaders of the SDA who have evidently broken the law are beyond dispute, but what is not, are double criteria implemented concerning citizens of the same country, depending on their party, or even, religious afiliations.

State Security Service accuses the arrested members of the SDA that they were planning phased creation of an "independent state of Sandzak", while the SDA in a letter addressed to embassies in Belgrade, clims that "Serbian and Montenegrin authorities, by such and similar methods of intimidation and exerting pressure, wish to instigate the process of emigration of the Muslim population from Sandzak with the aim to change the demographic composition of the inhabitants, and this direct attack on political representatives of Sandzak Muslims is an effort to subdue all forms of political articulation of this people".

MONTENEGRO AND SERBIA

Massive arrests of citizens belonging to certain political parties or nationalities, with pompous media coverage, was so far a specialty of the Seerbian regime. It is unnecessary to remind of the events in Kosovo during the "anti-bureaucratic revolution" and the dissatisfaction of the Serbian authorities with the Montenegrin leadership of the time, for not following in the steps of Belgrade in its policy of satanization of an entire people. After all, it cost the former authorities their political survival.

Things did not change significantly after supporters of Bulatovic, the current President of Montenegro, came to power, if the verbal support to Milosevic's policy concerning minorities is excluded, of course. Despite the events which had occurred, Montenegro proved that it had a much more democratic attitude towards minority groups than Serbia. This was, after all, verified by official international delegations for protection of human rights, representatives of Embassies and some statesmen. The citizens of Montenegro, were, naturally, also aware of this.

The recent synchronized action of the Police of Montenegro and that of Serbia, indicates, however, that things might be changing. The question is whether the arrested men really presented such a danger for Montenegro, especially in view of the fact stressed by State Security Service itself in its statement that "they were isolated from the rest of Montenegrin Muslims", and in view of the negligible amount of arms which was found. Because, it is not an exaggeration to say that the entire quantity found in possession of the 12 leaders of the SDA, could easily be found in possession of a single volunteer or participant in the recent wars.

The large number of arrests of Muslims in Serbia and Montenegro could be observed in a broader context, too. It is an established fact that the state community is willing to organize a conference for the global resolution of the Yugoslav crisis, and to initiate, in the second phase, talks on Kosovo, Vojvodina and Sandzak. Serbian diplomacy, however, makes it known that the issues of Vojvodina and Kosovo can be resolved in bilateral negotiations between Serbia, Hungary and Albania. That is why the visit of Hungarian Minister of foreign affairs, Mr Yesenysky, and the indirect revival of former President Cosic's proposals published in the Serbian press about a division of Kosovo between Albania and Serbia gain in significance again. Such manoeuvres of the Serbian regime would leave only the issue of Sandzak unresolved. Namely, with Bosnia divided, and the Muslims left out as a nation from the Yugoslav Constitution, and now with the arrests and practical discontinuation of the SDA, nobody would be left to talk about Sandzak with. By eliminating the future negotiating party about the status of Sandzak, the Serbian and Montenegrin authorities open the door for the final solution of this issue - according to the own discretion of the authorities.

Marko VUKOVIC AIM Podgorica