GETTING ARMED FOR FEAR

A group of Moslems on Trial in Plav

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The Montenegrin judiciary has its hands full of work again. After trying a group of leaders and members of the Party of Democratic Action in Bijelo Polje and a group of young men in Cetinje, the Basic Court in Plav has initiated proceedings against nineteen Moslems. The indictment, represented by the prosecutor Suco Bakovic, charges sixteen of the accused for "the criminal act of illegal possesion of arms according to Article 204, para. 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Montenegro", and the remaining three defendants pursuant to the same Article, but para 2. The envisaged punishment for acts under para. 1 is from six months to five years of imprisonment, and under para. 2 - from one to ten years of prison.

Interestingly enough, all the accused are charged by the same prosecutor, but the sentences will not be passed by one, but three criminal tribunals. Namely, eight of the defendants will appear before the Criminal Tribunal presided over by judge Etem Omeragic; six before the tribunal presided over by judge Radenko Radenkovic and five will appear before the tribunal presided over by their colleague Sefkija Djesevic.

Let us remind, in a blitzkrieg operation in early November last year, the Montenegrin police arrested 19 persons from the area of the commune of Plav "within their constant activities for the detection and seizure of arms, as well as for the surveillance and severing of channels for the illegal procurement of arms". The investigating authorities then brought criminal charges against the suspects for "the criminal act of illegal possession of and trade in firearms". Although the Montenegrin Ministry of the Interior in its statement issued on that occasion publicly boasted of having severed the chain of arms smuggling, it, nevertheless, "forgot" to point out an essential fact - that all the discovered arms were of Yugoslav manufacture, and also failed to answer a crucial question: who sold arms to the citizens of Plav as even outsiders know that factory, military and police arms depots are not accessible to the Moslems!?

However, even without this key answer on the part of the investigating authorities the trials in Plav have started. We have been attended the trial of Hamdija Sarkinovic. The indictment charges him with having committed the criminal act of "keeping in his house in Plav, between August 1992 and October 29, 1994, unlicensed arms and ammunition - an automatic rifle, with two clips and 72 bullets, which he had previously bought from Husnija Tosic for DM 1,200, which procurement and keeping by citizens is prohibited by the law".

In his closing statement the prosecutor Bakovic claimed that in the "acts committed by the accused there are all the essential elements of the criminal act of illegal possession of arms" and proposed that the "Court find Sarkinovic guilty and punish him according to the law".

The counsel for the accused Sarkinovic, Sefer Medjedovic, inter alia, pointed out that the case of his client was the best example of the discrepancy between life and the legislator. This act, said Medjedovic, has been committed by the evil time of hate which reigned in this country, when various para-armies and their leaders ravaged this country, and the Moslems had no protection whatsoever.

"In addition to that general danger, my client lived under a very tangible threat. Namely, about that time Krsto Dasic, who has died in the meantime, freely walked through Plav in a military uniform. He was armed, either with a machine gun or a Kalashnikov, or with bombs and knives and openly threatened Sarkinovic and his family. My client requested protection from the Police station in Plav, but as they did not stop Dasic, Sarkinovic, together with his two neighbours - Montenegrins - sent a letter to the Minister of Police Nikola Pejakovic asking him for protection. However, since the competent authorities did nothing, Sarkinovic, driven by fear, bought a rifle which he kept in the house. He never fired a single bullet from that gun" - claims attorney Medjedovic.

In contrast to the prosecutor, attorney Medjedovic points out that this was an act in case of "extreme necessity, which leads to the release of the accused" and suggests to the Court to acquit Sarkinovic. The Court will pronounce its verdict subsequently.

Hajrudin Husovic was also on trial that same day. In his defense he emphasized that about the time when he bought the weapons rumour was rife in Plav that 20 thousand Chetniks were coming, led by Arkan, to slaughter the Moslems. He stated that he did not feel protected by the MUP (Ministry of the Interior) at all as that same "authority had guarded Arkan and Seselj when they came to Plav" and that he lived in great fear for himself and his family. He also pointed out that he had never fired a single bullet from that weapon.

Zufer Tosic, the primary defendant in this process, also appeared at Husovic's trial, as a witness. He is charged with having illegally sold the largest quantity of arms in Plav. As he considered it very important to determine who supplied the primary defendant with arms, attorney Medjedovic asked the Court to have Tosic answer that question.

However, Tosic literally answered: "My life hangs by a thread. Great powers are in play. Had I mentioned but one name during the investigation, my family and I would have been killed".

On the insistence and warnings of attorney Medjedovic that the Court might fine or even punish him with a prison sentence if he refused to testify correctly, Tosic remained consistent and said: "There is no other answer I can give you to that question because of my family".

After that the trial was suspended. The trials of the first defendant Zufer Tosic and the second defendant Mirsad Canovic were postponed for March 24, as they were not represented by an attorney at the first hearing. The trials of the other accused will start or be continued in the following few days.

[eki RADON^I]