DISMISSALS IN MONTENEGRIN MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR

Two sticks of dynamite shoved under the door of a temporary home of refugees in a small place called Kuline near Podgorica, in just two weeks made a chaos in Montenegrin police. The entire leadering team of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Montenegro and almost the entire leadership of Podgorica Centre of Security left their posts.

Although at this moment it is still unconfirmed, it can be claimed that the Minister of police in the Government of Montenegro, Nikola Pejakovic was relieved of duty. This decision of the Montenegrin state leadership was the reason for his three immediate associates - Assistant Minister of State Security, Bosko Bojovic, Assistant Minister of Public Security, Sreto Radonjic, and Assistant Minister for Administrative and Legal Affairs, Milorad Ivanovic - to submit their resignation. Unofficial information speak of a large number of heads of departments and inspectors in the Ministry who intend to follow suit.

A couple of days before that, due to responsibility and overstepping their authority, Minister of the police himself, Nikola Pejakovic, discharged almost the entire leadership of the Centre of Security in Podgorica, headed by Zeljko Jocic.

Whether this was an arbitrary move of Minister Pejakovic, which touched the vanity and possibly some of the men trusted by the Montenegrin leadership, noone knows, but soon after his public statement, Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, after consultations with Momir Bulatovic, told the Minister of Police, Nikola Pejakovic that he would not be included in the announced reconstruction of the Government, that is, that he would be relieved of duty. After that conversation, three Assistants of Minister Pejakovic submitted their resignations.

The direct cause for radical dismissals and resignations in the Montenegrin Ministry of the interior and Podgorica Centre of Security was the mentioned case of a terrorist attack on the apartment of a Muslim refugee family in the small town close to Podgorica. On the occasion, the Police arrested Bozino Veskovic for founded suspicion that he placed the explosive device. He was later beaten up by the Podgorica policemen and they forcibly extracted confession that he was the perpetrator of the crime. The Centre of Security in Podgorica publicly bragged about the results of this "undertaking", and state media published the photograph of the accused. In the meantime, the real perpetrator - Vlatko Radojevic turned himself in to the police. But, the Podgorica policemen were not willing to admit the mistake and set the man arrested by mistake free. They beat up Radojevic too instead.

A rally of citizens of Spuz followed. The citizens demanded that the police set Veskovic free, but also that the Podgorica policemen be held responsible and answer for their actions. Veskovic was set free only after a couple of days.

The heads of Podgorica police attributed the disgrace caused by this case, internally, to the State Security Service, accusing it of having staged Radojevic's confession and gathering of the citizens of Spuz in order to publicly discredit Zeljko Jocic, head of the Podgorica Centre of Security.

This was, it seems, the last drop that spilled the cup in a smouldering conflict between the Montenegrin Minister of police, Nikola Pejakovic and the head of the Podgorica Centre of Security, Zeljko Jocic. Sparkling between them, as we learn, was constant in the last six months and it was just a matter of tume when the conflict would escalate.

The sparkling started the fire in the "Spuz case". Minister Pejakovic, pressured by heavy accusations, disturbed public opinion, and agitated internal relations in the police, decided to react publicly.

In an unusually sharp and, the impression was, emotional statement, on may 4, the Minister of Police, among other, told the citizens of Montenegro that this case "would not have deserved the interest of the public, had it not been a specific precedent, both due to overstepping authority and extremely inhumane and unprofessional treatment of persons deprived of freedom. To be more precise: coercive measures were brutally applied in relation to Bozina Veskovic in order to extract confession by force and also in relation to Vlatko Radojevic who turbed himself in voluntarily as the perpetrator of the crime".

The Minister of police then heavily accused the Head of the Centre of Security in Podgorica, Zeljko Jocic, that he had approved all the actions, and that it had all happened in his presence. He then publicly stated his decision, "in order to preserve the dignity of the citizens and the service as a whole", to discharge from the Service: Head of the Centre of Security of Podgorica, Zeljko Jocic, Assistant for Criminality Jovan Cerovic, Head of the Department for General Criminality, Dragisa Bulatovic, and two inspectors.

"Due to an extremely inhumane and above all unprofessional relation to the family Veskovic, in my own name and the name of my associates, I publicly apologize", Pejakovic stressed at the end of his, probably, last Ministerial statement.

Two days after the Minister addressed the public, news leaked that he too was discharged from his mininter's post. The only logical question was: why?

Our well-informed sources say that Minister Pejakovic made a cardinal mistake when he discharged the Head of the Podgorica Centre of Security, Zeljko Jocic without the consent of the Montenegrin state leaders. News came from the ranks of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists that President Momir Bulatovic ordered Minister Pejakovic not to publicize the quoted statement. It seems that Jocic was planned for the new minister of police. But, Minister Pejakovic did not obey President Bulatovic, and in the political sense, went down the drain. The impression is though, that the Minister intentionally pulled Jocic along with him with his headstrong act.

Whether Pejakovic decided to take such a step for principled or personal reasons, it is difficult to say, but the result is the same: Zeljko Jocic will certainly not be the new minister of police. Besides, Pejakovic made the impression with many people that he was leaving the minister's post because he had opposed brutal treatment of citizens, and at the same time, he left Jocic's mentors with the "halo" of protectors of bullies in police uniforms.

Various pressures of politicians and relations in the police which resemble those in a pack of wolves have probably contributed to the decision of close Pejakovic's associates to resign. They explained their act by principled reasons: they supported the Minister in his decision to suspend Jocic and his employees. With their resignations they also seemed to have wished to express their revolt because the whole police apparatus had been shattered to pieces for the sake of one man alone.

It would be naive to believe that Pejakovic was discharged because workers of the Ministry in "Spuz case" overstepped their authority. Namely, Minister Pejakovic was not discharged before because of much heavier criminal offences committed by men in police uniforms. Various instances of police brutality are still vivid in the memory of the public: the case of a young man killed in the centre of Niksic by local policemen who hit the unfortunate young man with their boots in his larynx, or the dreadful maltreatment and torture of the arrested leaders of the Party of Democratic Action in Bijelo Polje, or the heavily beaten up innocent young men in Cetinje...

There were dozens of serious cases of ovrestepping authority of the workers of the Ministry during Pejakovic's rule. The state and political leadership of Montenegro was well informed about them, but at the time they had no intention whatsoever to discharge the Minister of police althogh the democratic public demanded it.

Pejakovic was not so principled then either: he did not discharge his assistants or subordinates who had participated in beating up the citizens. After all, Pejakovic discharged Jocic only now, although he knew that on the territory under jurisdiction of the Centre of Security in Podgorica people were beaten up in the name of the law, even in the streets and within sight of the citizens.

Pejakovic in the meantime formed two committees to investigate the case of Veskovic and Radojevic. As we learn, the committees have completed work and established that in both cases there were severe overstepping of authority of the workers of Podgorica Centre of Security. Although there were hints that the discharged Jocic would also publicize a statement on the occasion, so far there were none.

It seems that the crack from the top of the police pyramid is quickly going downward towards the basis. Discontent and parallelism in the Service is growing. Due to all that, and especially due to the fact that the present developments in the police can be considered to be the greatest shock in the ruling party since its foundation, among the leaders of the Democratic Party of Socialists a real rush to find a new minister started. After all, the present chaotic situation in Montenegrin police is just a reflection of developments in the leadership of the ruling party.

Although all Yugoslav media carried the news about the developments in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Montenegro, there are still no official reactions. The last issue on the agenda of the pending session of Montenegrin parliament is eagerly expected ("Elections and Nominations"). Prime Minister Djukanovic will then come out with his proposal.

But, whoever will come to the head of the Montenegrin Ministry of the interior, it will be the same for the citizens, since the present developments just verify the allegations of the opposition that the police is privatized by the leaders of the ruling party and that it is transformed into party police by their will.

Seki RADONCIC AIM Podgorica