Bulatovic Indicted

Political or Legal Proceedings?

AIM Podgorica, 23 February, 1998

For the first time in the short history of the Montenegrin multiparty system, an important document was passed in the parliament unanimously a few days ago. All the deputies of the Montenegrin assembly voted in favour of the new election law in unison last week. This fact could mislead the uninformed that a concensus was reached among political rivals. However, the demonstrated unanimity is short-lived and it does not reflect the real relations among political parties which, as the elections are approaching, as usual in this space when it comes to the conflicts between parties, use all available weapons.

The severest conflicts are, with no doubt, going on between factions of the once united Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), in which even heavy artillery - the juduciary - is used every day. The only difference lies in the fact that Djukanovic's faction is using Montenegrin, while Bulatovic's is using Serbian, that is the federal institutions in order to reinforce their party positions. State prosecutor of Montenegro, Vladimir Susovic, has brought the almost forgotten verbal delict back to life, by indicting Radovan Vukovic, the until recently anonymous assistant in the federal ministry of trade. The sin of Mr. Vukovic is that he publicly repeated that if his, Bulatovic's faction, did not win, there would be riots in Montenegro. It is true that Vukovic proved to be a prophet and practically announced, about a fortnight in advance, riots on the streets of Podgorica which took place on 14 and 15 January. The statement given to Dnevni telegraf was a good enough reason for Vukovic to end up behind bars, indicted for threatening the "state legal system and territorial integrity of Montenegro", although so far data have still not been presented which would charge Vukovic that he had actually participated in organizing the rally or in programming riots in Montenegro.

As it could have been expected, the other party reacted promptly to the action of state prosecutor of Montenegro: after Vukovic had been arrested, federal public prosecutor Vukasin Jokanovic expressly came out in public and, acting like the federal constitutional court and the federal court as a direct legal counsel of the party of Momir Bulatovic, he took over criminal prosecution of Vukovic, and his first move was to - release the assistant federal minister of trade from jail, saying that he belived that his statement was not a criminal act but "a free political contemplation or a verbal logical discussion". Jokanovic's intervention was evaluated by Montenegrin state prosecutor Susovic as "unlawful" and he remained firmly convinced that the act Vukovic was indicted for was a criminal act aimed against the interest of Montenegro. In view of the party commitment and loyalty to Milosevic of the federal state prosecutor, a different decision could not have been expected, even if data on Vukovic's responsibility had been presented.

Developments which followed also showed to what extent politics meddled with jurispridence. Not long after, Montenegrin prosecutor's office was on the move again bronging charges against some Montenegrin politicians. Senior prosecutor Bozidar Vukcevic assessed that "there is founded suspicion" that members of the organizing committee of the "great protest rally" in Podgorica were the most responsible for "destructive activities in the streets of Podgorica on 14 January between 16 and 18.00 hours". On that basis, the demand to begin investigation was immediately issued against Momir Bulatovic, Zoran Zizic, Bozidar Bojovic and Slobodan Vujosevic, who the prosecutor obviously assessed were responsible for disorder created after the rally. The senior prosecutor directed the main attack against Momir Bulatovic, as it could be expected. Former president of Montenegro, apart from "organization of destructive demonstrations", was indicted for other criminal acts, but primarily for exceeding authority in cases of pardon and amnesty. Montenegrin prosecutor's office assesses that on 19 December 1996, "exceeding his authority", Bulatovic granted amnesty to 21 members of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA). Bulatovic is also indicted for abuse of authority in granting amnesty to his acquaintances not well-known to the public, Nina Otasevic amd Slobodan Novakovic, and Miodrag Davidovic, Bulatovic's best man who the former president freed of further criminal prosecution on the eve of the second round of the elections.

During his mandate, the former president indeed was very generous. Data speak that he granted amnesty and pardoned more than 600 persons, starting from those who had committed murders, all the way to minor poachers and lumber thieves. Much was written about it during the election campaign, but nobody from the state administration of Montenegro reacted until now. The Montenegrin prosecutor's office, with a long delay, nowadays established that some cases of amnesty and pardon were completely unfounded.

The question is - why is the Montenegrin judiciary reacting now? The analysis of the demand reveals the fact that before it was filed, there had been comprehensive consultations with the Montenegrin leadership. Because, if criminal prosecution of the organizers of the rally after the attack on the seat of the government and members of the Montenegrin ministry of internal affairs is understandable, it is difficult to explain by jurisprudent reasons why charges are raised against Bulatovic for having released members of the SDA. Bulatovic is accused of having usurped the authority which belonged to the president of FRY Zoran Lilic at the time, because members of the SDA were indicted for an act punishable by federal law. It is also strange that the state prosecutor now, almost two and a half years after the granted amnesty suddenly "remembered" that the then president of Montenegro had exceeded authority. Vladimir Susovic was also state prosecutor at the time leadership of the SDA were arrested, but he paid no heed to numerous complaints of the opposition parties or the prominent lawyers that this was a case of violation of human rights. He did not react when, at the time of the still united DPS, Bulatovic also granted amnesty to Hadzic and his party colleagues.

After the publicly stated demand of the state prosecutor, the first to react was Momir Bulatovic himself, who claimed that the decision on amnesty was a joint decision of the leadership of the them united DPS, noting that the official minutes from the meeting were available. Bulatovic also stressed that this decision proved that "state terrorism in Montenegro continued". The Liberal Alliance of Montenegro also reacted and opposed continued practice of political trials, putting an equation mark between the lodged appeal against Bulatovic with some previous political trials, primarily those against leaders of the National Harmony coalition last year.

Probably hardly anybody expected that Susovic's demand would cause official negative reactions of the people from the top of Montenegrin authorities. However, Dr. Blagota Mitric, president of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro reacted very promptly. In an interview to the independent daily Vijesti from Podgorica, Mitric, in for him characteristic sharp tone, warned that, if Bulatovic were prosecuted for having granted amnesty to leaders of the SDA, he would demand to be punished by a sentence in prison himself! "If a legally binding court decision is reached sentencing Momir Bulatovic for the act of granting pardon to the members of the SDA, I am ready to immediately submit my resignation to the post of the president of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro, as a moral act because I myself had advised him to do it", Mitric warned.

It seems that nobody like the president of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro, in his short interview and probably unintentionally, could describe better the situation in the Montenegrin state at the time of the absolute power of the united DPS. Mitric testifies that the "famous" decision on pardoning the leadership of the SDA was reached at a meeting attended, apart from himself, by Momir Bulatovic and Zoran Zizic, Filip Vujanovic (minister of justice at the time) and Vladimir Susovic (both the then and the present state prosecutor). Strange are the ways of politics: the decision was reached unanimously at the time, and now Vujanovic and Susovic are indicting Bulatovic for it! While talking to Vijesti, the president of the Constitutional Court said also that he had been one of the few from the leadership of the Democratic Party of Socialists who had been against prosecution of leaders of National Harmony coalition, Novak Kilibarda and Slavko Perovic.

How the latest political-legal haggling in Montenegro will end nobody knows for sure. Sources close to the top of Djukanovic's DPS say that criminal indictments against Bulatovic and his group were actually an attempt of former party colleagues to unstable the opponent as much as possible. That is why they reached out for appeals in order to politically discredit Bulatovic, with no real intention to put him behind bars. The political background of the move of the state prosecutor is very convincingly illustrated by the fact that the Montenegrin authorities did not dare accuse Bulatovic for what he had done in mid January, but charge him for the "sins" from the past. After negative reactions of the public to raise charges, it is logical to expect that Djukanovic and his party colleagues will stick only to threatening Bulatovic.

The data Dr Blagota Mitric stated testify that the practice of reaching out for services of "independent judiciary" in squaring accounts with political opponents still exists in Montenegro, and that both the dogmatists and those who like to be called reformists tend to do it. It is obvious that only disappearance of party monopoly can bring about real conditions for controlling the authorities and that is why the early elections in the middle of this year will be very significant. If nobody wins absolute majority, as public opinion polls show, it can really be expected that the rule of law will actually be established in this space.

Marko VUKOVIC

AIM Podgorica