(Podgorica, 4 June 2012) – The decision of the US President to designate Naser Kelmendi a drug kingpin clearly demonstrates that the “strategic partners” of the Montenegrin government – having attempted to compromise the citizens’ protests – do not belong in Montenegro’s future and that the most influential countries will stand on the side of those who fight against organized crime and their protectors.
The fact that US President Barack Obama personally designated Kelmendi and two other drug kingpins from Afghanistan and Mexico as individuals against whom sanctions must be imposed, confirms that we are dealing with an incredibly dangerous individual.
This criminal attempted to plant his dirty money, earned through the drug trade, and present it as a donation to the protest organizers. With his actions Kelmendi was attempting to undermine the credibility of the protest organizers and the hundreds of volunteers and citizens who have donated money. The money was to be used to help subsidize the transportation of brave citizens who lack the money to buy a bus ticket.
Kelmendi was trying to compromise the energy that has awakened in Montenegro and that will lead to a situation in which him and his ilk will never again be in a situation to capture our institutions, but instead will end up in prison, while their illegally accumulated properties are nationalized by the state.
The key question is why Kelmendi, a drug kingpin who does not deal with the public frequently but is preoccupied with secret deals, would decide to assist protests and to use specific media to settle scores with us? Drug kingpins usually use other methods to settle scores and rarely resort to front page interviews but usually hide themselves from the public.
The answer to these questions is simple. Our institutions, thanks to the links between individuals with organized crime, have allowed Naser Kelmendi to freely do business in Montenegro. They have thus given him the task of fighting for the defense of their joint interests, i.e. the preservation of the existing system.
MANS has spent the past year uncovering the fact that Kelmendi has invested enormous sums of money in illegal construction projects (and their retroactive legalization) in Ulcinj.
Instead of confirming the source of Kelmendi’s money, state prosecutors in Montenegro only asked him to pay a €10,000 fine in order to ‘legalize’ his dirty dealings that MANS had uncovered. Kelmendi claimed that by this action he “proved that I’m not a criminal.”
The use of drug kingpins to undermine and settle score with one’s people, collaboration with people whom the heads of the US administration believe are leading drug smugglers, represents a pathetic attempt by the government figures with ties to organized crime to protect themselves from the loss of power, loss of position and ending up in jail.
Such transparent attempts certainly won’t stop the resistance of the citizens, but they can additionally worsen the already difficult economic situation of Montenegro, since serious investors won’t invest in a country whose “strategic partners” are people like Naser Kelmendi. Insisting on continued cooperation with organized crime, even its misuse for the purposes of personal protection, is leading Montenegro’s government and the state itself into isolation and an eventual confrontation with much larger and more influential countries that are arresting the business partners of our government.
Calling upon Chief State Proscutor, Ranka Carapic, to react to the recent designation is absurd since her office has already absolved Kelmendi of any judicial proceedings. Expecting a reaction from Igor Luksic is also laughable, since sitting in the government are Kelmendi’s business partners who have also enabled him to freely carry out his business in Montenegro.
That is why we, the citizens, must demonstrate to both Montenegro and the world that we are no longer prepared to watch quietly as our country is used as a refuge for drug kingpins, while our economy and environment are destroyed in order to enable money laundering. We must offer resistance to the craziness that allows Kelmendi to be considered a “strategic partner,” to resist the craziness that he only be fined by paying a small sum to the children of Ulcinj, and resist the organized crime structures that are destroying our economy and future.
Following the US investigation into the privatization of Montenegrin Telekom, the recent expose by the BBC and the writings of Foreign Policy and the OCCRP, now the US executive branch has confirmed that the business partners of our government are drug kingpins that should be arrested and have their assets taken away. Because of Kelmendi and similar criminals, the resistance in Montenegro will not stop, since criminals cannot and do not want to bring solutions for Montenegro’s recovery, nor can they secure international support!
