Incident on Podgorica Airport
Demonstration of Military Force
AIM Podgorica, 12 December, 1999
The expected has happened. At Podgorica airport in Golubovci, members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) of Montenegro, like for who knows how many times in the past year, came face to face with the armed members of the Army of Yugoslavia. Air transportation was interrupted and the news which spread around Podgorica in the evening on Wednesday, 8 December, disturbed the citizens.
On that day, around 17.00 h, a group of soldiers broke into the control tower of Podgorica airport and demanded that the flight controllers shut down the airport. The controllers refused to obey asking to be issued an official decision of the federal flight control from Belgrade. In the meantime, patrols of military police were intensified at the airport.
Half an hour after the intervention, an airplane of Montenegro Air Lines took off for Belgrade. This was the last flight that day because three evening flights to and from Belgrade were cancelled. In Belgrade, at the airport in Surcin, it was "explained" to numerous passengers who were waiting to fly to Montenegro that the flights were delayed due to bad weather conditions, for technical, but also safety reasons.
The official decision on suspension of traffic was sent by the federal flight control to the control tower in Podgorica at about 21.00 h, when the army literally threw out the controllers and practically seized the airport. This act was explained by the air-force and anti-aircraft defence command as a necessity to protect integrity of the property of the Federal Ministry of Defence.
Indeed, according to the statement of this command issued a few days later, members of Montenegrin MUP "without previous announcement or agreement with the command of the military airport started work on construction of a building - a hangar". In the command this was assessed as "an attempt of unpermitted illegal use and usurpation by the MUP of Montenegro of a part of the military airport".
After the intervention of the reinforced unit of the Army of Yugoslavia, the unit of MUP caught red-handed in construction of the hangar for its own air-crafts interrupted work and its members "partly left the area and were deployed in the broader zone of the airport".
"The military provocation at the airport in Golubovci is part of a broader plan carefully prepared by the military leadership in Belgrade". This is the comment heard in Podgorica four days later about the offensive of the Army of Yugoslavia under command of colonel Luka Kastratovic stationed at the airport in Podgorica with which civilian Montenegrin aviation is sharing the runway.
According to the official explanation of Montenegrin MUP the problem has arisen due to misunderstanding between the Army of Yugoslavia and Montenegrin police. Montenegrin policemen "started preparations for construction of a hangar for air-crafts that belong to Montenegrin police. The Army of Yugoslavia then took measures to secure the airport. They set up anti-aircraft cannons and armed the infantry with combat arms - machineguns and automatic rifles, taking positions for defence of the airport.
But, according to sources of the Army, trouble has not come from nowhere. According to these information the Army had carefully prepared the whole operation. On Tuesday, 7 December, the decision on putting members of the Army at the airport on the alert was already in force. Arms and combat ammunition had already been distributed, and the units were put on the alert. The Army had already prepared four combat airplanes and two helicopters armed with BL 75 type casette bombs used for destroying live force and light vehicles - it is claimed by Montena fax agency.
It is interesting that all this is happening at the time when the law on state property was expected to come into force according to which Montenegro is the owner of Podgorica airport. By decision of the assembly and passing of the law on property of the state of Montenegro on the eve of the intervention in Golubovci a part of the airport has become property of Airports of Montenego enterprise. The take-over of the airport should have formally taken place by election of the new director and offer to the employees to work in the new firm. The flight control would continue to be federal.
But the Army juxtaposed more specific "arguments" to the decision of the assembly. On that day, two army transporters landed on the airport in Golubovci with members of special army units ready to take part in a possible military operation. These unuts were under direct command of general Spasoje Smiljanic, commander of air-force and anti-aircraft defence who had come to Podgorica especially for the purpose of what followed. Developments were closely monitored by general Milorad Obradovic, commander of the second army and Zoran Zizic vice-president of the Socialist People's Party (SNP). Presence of the official of SNP is just a reminder of the fact that the Army of Yugoslavia has never broken its political connections with the bitter enemy of Montenegrin regime.
The members of the army units at the airport were "given measured information" that "targets of possible action are quite close". Obviously members of the MUP of Montenegro were meant by this. This leads to the conclusion that the "welcoming party" which Montenegrin policemen met with was well prepared and that their presence was used for achieving broader effects. And the nature of these effects is also explained by the presence of the officials of SNP.
As evidence of political alliance between the greatest supporters of Slobodan Milosevic and the Army of Yugoslavia, the army has many times demonstrated the possibility to physically prevent every attempt of Montenegrin authorities to take over responsibility of vital spheres of life in their state. And air transportation is one of the most important and at the same time the most fragile link in that chain.
Pursuant federal laws the Army has until now had absolute priority in using the airport, so that even during its usual drills it could use the whole airport for its purposes. Except for the takeoff and landing runway, it has its own flight control so that it does not need the support of the civilian flight control, at least not on the territory of Montenegro.
This independence of air-force of the Army of Yugoslavia in Montenegro is also corroborated by the fact that Montenegrin state, despite the ambition to control its own part of the airport by means of its own airline company, does not have its own flight control. Besides, all international airlines, whenever they wish to open new corridors, need to seek approval and guarantees of the federal flight control from Belgrade. So firmly established both by regulations and by the factual situation, the army at the airport in Golubovci is an unsolvable problem for Montenegrin regime.
That is why it is perhaps understandable why prime minister Filip Vujanovic gave such a defeatist statement that Montenegrin state would for the time being give up on actual taking charge of the airport. All things considered, it can still serve the Montenegrins - if the Army permits them - to fly away to the world from it, but not to the world to come closer to Montenegro through it. By demonstrating this helplessness in which both the regime and the citizens of Montenegro have been entangled for years, the Army has shown once again that if its status is not finally solved, nothing else in Montenegrin state can be effectuated.
Perhaps that is the reason the developments have after all exceeded expectations. The very next day the public was set at ease by the news that the relations between the MUP of Montenegro and the Army of Yugoslavia have normalised, and in the afternoon air transportation continued. "It was just a big misunderstanding", both parties allegedly agreed.
Everybody returned to their respective starting positions. And this still means that the score is a tie until a new opportunity.
Goran VUJOVIC
(AIM)
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