A LONG JOURNEY INTO THE NIGHT

Montenegro: Sanctions, Three Years Later

Subtitle: Following obediently Serbia in its campaign for "the state of all Serbs", Montenegro ruined its own economy in a short time, drove its citizens into poverty, lost it international reputation. The reward for loyalty - we endure the sanctions with dignity

text:

Security Council was unanimous at last: on May 30, 1992, it adopted United Nations Resolution 757, which imposed sanctions of the international community against Serbia and Montenegro. The world blocked the Serb and Montenegrin federation, the regime and the people in it. Just a day before, President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, denied the existence of any aggression against Bosnia. Serbia, at least officially, was not at war. Milosevic's letter had no effect.

The immediate and the real cause, as the official declaration read was "Serb aggression against the internationally recognized state of Bosnia and Herzegovina". The decision was unanimous, even our main supporters - the Russians and the Chinese - voted in favour of introducing the sanctions. The federation of Serbia and Montenegro in a short time of its existence made a grand entrance at the historical stage - for the first time in its experience, the United Nations introduced rigid punitive measures against a European country.

Although announced for a long time, the sanctions shocked both the people and the authorities. Because, just a few days before the Security Council voted in favour of the decision to introduce the sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro, in the Assembly of Serbia, Vladislav Jovanovic made a visionary assessment of the significance of the document prepared by the international community. "It is just a matter of the protocol, and it should not be given too much significance", the double foreign minister comforted the deputies. And the Montenegrin Prime Minister, Milo Djukanovic, in his speech in the North of Montenegro, in Savnik, on the eve of the May federal elections, ironically commented on the announcement of introduction of the sanctions. "The sanctions are a desperate move of our enemies", Djukanovic said hoping that the international community would back out.

But, there was no choice - and life with the sanctions was ahead of us. For a long time, representatives of the authorities strived to preserve the image that "unjust and utterly undeserved sanctions" could not harm us whatsoever. The federal Prime Minister, Dr Radoje Kontic, as a wise statesman, reached the conclusion that the act of introduction of the sanctions "in a certain way is the act of recognition of the FRY." The logic was clear - now that the sanctions were introduced, the citizens should be reassured about the persistence of policy of the state and political leaders and the indestructibility of the economy. "Collapse of the economy is completely out of the question", in June 1992, Radoman Bozovic, Prime Minister of the Serb Government and a lecturer at the Economic Faculty in Podgorica at the time, claimed with optimistism. A political ally of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), Chetnik duke, Vojislav Seselj, concluded that "the sanctions are the beginning of the end of the United Nations". As if there was not enough optimism, the leader of all the Serbs, Slobodan Milosevic indicated the latest course of development in July 1992: "All strata of the population manifested a patriotic consciousness by comprehending the unjust pressure exerted against Serbia. The economy should also take the sanctions as a specific challenge".

State media did their best to show that "the situation was ordinary". The Ppresident of Serbia, accompanied by cameras of state TV, discovered new oil deposits all around Vojvodina, and state economists publicized economic accomplishments of their entrprises in unison. New mines were opened triumphantly, fast railoads were promoted in whole land of Serbia, and in Montenegro, in the presence of prominent statesmen, ceremonies of opening new telephone exchanges, village roads, new cigarrete production lines were held. We were simply convinced that the West envies us for our perseverence and steadfastness.

And yet, balance sheets made at the end of the first year of the sanctions showed discouraging results of resistance of the domestic economy. State supported smuggling through Albania and Romania could not replace regular conditions of operation. That is why fortune-telling about the approaching lifting of the unjust sanctions began. "The sanctions will ceratinly not be lifted next week", in January 1993, the "father of the nation", Dobrica Cosic, who was the President of the FRY at the time, predicted like a visionary. His successor, Zoran Lilic, half a year later, foretold that "even the countries which introduced the sanctions against the FRY have started to realize that the blockade is absurd". A while later, the President of Montenegro, Momir Bulatovic, concluded along the same lines, in June 1994, that "there are indications that the sanctions will be lifted towards the end of summer". When the program of economic revival of Mr Dragoslav Avramovic gave hope to the citizens that there would be no economic collapse after all, this newly fledged political star, the great monetary magus also tried his luck with forecasting. "The sanctions will not last for more than three months", Avramovic certified in mid last year.

The price of the dream about the union of all Serbs increased, the life of ordinary citizens became almost unbearable. Intensive, almost daily, sending messages to Boutros Ghali followed. Federal Prime Minister, Radoje Kontic, beat the record of Branko Kostic, the former president of the presidency of SFRY, in the number of letters sent to Secretary General of the United Nations. Occasionally, Zoran Lilic also wrote a letter or two. But, there was no answer from the Security Council. Alarming news started coming in from Montenegro too, its official agencies, that "there can be no life with the sanctions" (M. Djukanovic), pessimistic visions which were not matched with the former level of patriotism. In order to prevent unnecessary and dangerous defeatism, Slobodan Milosevic reminded of perseverence of the local population in May 1994. "We cannot be blocked. Maybe the embargo could have certain effects in a thousand years, but in a few years? This is nothing", Milosevic concluded emphatically.

After three years of excommunication from the international trends, the economy of Serbia and Montenegro is practically at its deathbed. Social product is twice lower than in the prewar year of 1989. Metal and machine industries are operating with only ten to fifteen per cent of the available facilities. Losses of the electric power industry of Serbia and Montenegro reaches about three billion dinars. More than 60 thousand Serb and Montenegrin enterprises (out of the 144 thousand) did not even bother to submit the annual balance sheets for last year. More than 50 thousand enterprises had no turnover in last year, and about 17 thousand submitted empty sheets. Direct damage of the sanctions, it was officially assessed, amounts to about 55 billion dollars, and indirect damage is about 150 billion dollars. Damage suffered by the Montenegrin economy, according to a statement of Prime Minister Djukanovic, is assessed to amount to 5.6 billion dollars. According to the evaluation of the Economic Institute from Belgrade, in case the sanctions are lifted in the beginning of 1996, only in 2005, the social product of Serbia and Montenegro would come close to the one accomplished in 1990, at the time of Ante Markovic.

"Direct damage suffered by Montenegro due to the sanctions of the Security Council is enormous. If one keeps in mind the fact that now 5 to 50 per cent of the total facilities are in use in Montenegro, it is clear that the results are disastrous. The sanctions reflected most on the maritime economy which used to charge for its services in foreign currency, because operation of both nautical companies was interrupted, and this means a loss of an annual income of 80 to 100 million dollars. Shipyard in Bijela and the Port of Bar have practically been left without anything to do. The steelworks in Niksic, the Aluminium Complex in Podgorica, electric industries 'Obod' in Cetinje and machine industries 'Radoje Dakic' in Podgorica are working with great difficulties. These enterprises work with less than 50 per cent of the possible capacity, and they significantly affect industrial production in Montenegro. Besides, tourist economy as one of top priority in Montenegro, has no possibilities to attract foreigners, so foreign currency income of the Republic is reduced", President of the Chamber of the Economy, Vojin Djukanovis, lists consequences of the sanctions.

"Branches of the economy which do not depend much on import, such as electric power industry, wood and food industries, and even textiles, achieve the planned level of production more or less. Due to the sanctions, we are forced to purchase all imported raw materials and power sources at much higher prices than usual. The sanctions have primarily affected the low standard of living of the employees; a large number of workers who are unemployed at the moment; technology lags behind, because entire depreciation must be used for salaries of the employees and those who are unemployed", The President of the Chamber of the Economy stresses.

Montenegro is paying an enormous price for the alliance with Milosevic's regime. That Montenegrin leadership could not have turned its back on Milosevic, its ideological and political mentor, was resolutely explained at the time of introduction of the sanctions by the former Montenegrin minister of foreign affairs, Nikola Samardzic: "We said: whatever happens to Serbia, let the same happen to us. We could not have left it in the lurch. This is the third time in this century that Montenegro has acted in this manner. We have a common destiny, it seems we cannot get away from it". Following obediently Serbia in its campaign towards "the state of all Serbs", Montenegro ruined its own economy in a short time, drove its citizens into poverty, lost its international reputation. The reward for loyalty - together, we endure the sanctions with dignity.

Drasko Djuranovic AIM Podgorica

BOX: Dr Zarko Korac, Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade

Barbarity of the Society

• Three years of the sanctions, life in a ghetto, confrontation with the international environment, have they caused a loss of the sense of reality about the surroundings?

KORAC: An analysis of true consequences of the three-year long isolation of FR of Yugoslavia remains to be made some day, but nowadays, it is certainly clear that dramatic changes have occurred in the society and the consciousness of the majority of the people. In the sphere of politics, the authorities have grown more powerful, because they were offered an ideal opportunity to present themselves as the only advocates of national interests. The most characteristic features of the authorities in Serbia and Montnegro, anti-democracy and latent totalitarianism, have brought about a systematic development of an anti-liberal system of values which is constantly disseminated by well paid propagandists in the media. By shutting the FR of Yugoslavia in and turning it into a ghetto, normal exchange of ideas with the world was interrupted. The whole society turned barbaric and it is enough to look at the reactions of the citizens to a television presentation of the tied members of the United Nations in Bosnia & Herzegovina and be convinced that absolutely no moral criteria exists. Bandits and thieves have been promoted into national heroes, and crimes of paramilitary units are promulgated into heroic defensive actions of patriots.

• This total ruin of moral principles that you mention seems to be the most disastrous consequence of this whole horror?

KORAC: Like in a tragic farce, cowards become courageous people, criminals become heroes, and writers seized with chauvinist passions and priests - noble fighters for the rights of their nation. But, what is the worst of all is that a whole system of paranoid ideas is created in the society that a great conspiracy exists with us at its centre. This system of ideas serves as a pretext for our inconceivable intolerance and hatred towards our surroundings and all who think differently. Pathology is really deeply rooted: instead of asking the question why have we got into a conflict with the whole world, we use the conflict as verification of our own enormous value and special historic mission ("divine nation"). Everyday speech is soaked with irrationalism to such an extent that even the greatest lies are accepted as the truth if it serves for verification of the fantastic thesis that we are noble and kind, and everyone around us is evil, worthless and inimical towards us. A new science is created - national parahistory, which is much more an expression of our pathology than of a real insight into our place in the world and our interests. Therefore, it is not a mere chance that we have so many psychopaths on the public scene, and that decent and honest people are withdrawing, waiting completely resigned for all this to pass. Fortunately, there is a sufficient number of people who are ready to speak the truth regardless of the price and they are the germ of a future society which one will be able to call normal.

D. Dj.