{"id":5897,"date":"2010-04-26T10:11:57","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T08:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mans.co.me\/en\/?p=5897"},"modified":"2016-02-03T11:15:50","modified_gmt":"2016-02-03T09:15:50","slug":"crime-and-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mans.co.me\/en\/?p=5897","title":{"rendered":"Crime and politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who is ruling Montenegro?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"NebojsaMedojevic\"There has been two months since the opposition leaders Andrija Mandi\u0107 and Neboj\u0161a Medojevi\u0107<\/strong> have publicly stated the names of five people \u201cwho make a key connection between the government and organized crime\u201c in Montenegro. On the top of the pyramid they placed Branislav Brano Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 from Nik\u0161i\u0107 who is, as they say, \u201cin this connection between the organized crime and government obviously superior\u201d to the Prime Minister Milo \u0110ukanovi\u0107, a second-ranked on this list. They are followed by: Aco \u0110ukanovi\u0107, Stanko Suboti\u0107 Cane and Darko \u0160ari\u0107.<\/p>\n

The story more or less ends here. Director of the Police Administration Veselin Veljovi\u0107 said that \u201che does not have time to comment on untruths and ungrounded statements\u201d. Prosecution has \u201coverheard\u201d these accusations. If they didn\u2019t Medojevi\u0107 and Mandi\u0107 would have been called for an official interrogation by the State and Special Prosecutors Ranka \u010carapi\u0107 and \u0110ur\u0111ina-Nina Ivanovi\u0107, just like the University Professor Milan Popovi\u0107, to submit evidence for their claims. And the aforementioned mainly ignored what the opposition leaders had said.<\/p>\n

Does this all together confirm or deny what Mandi\u0107 and Medojevi\u0107 said?<\/p>\n

INFLUENCE:<\/strong> Let\u2019s start from the obvious. The three first-mentioned persons on the list of masters, Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 and brothers Milo and Aco \u0110ukanovi\u0107, are on the tope of the list of the most influential people in Montenegro which is made, now we can say traditionally, by the daily \u201cVijesti\u201d at the end of every calendar year. Only the sequence of most powerful and influential persons on the \u201cofficial\u201d and \u201cunofficial\u201d lists was switched.<\/p>\n

\"StankoSubotic\"\u0160ari\u0107 and Suboti\u0107<\/strong>, at least officially, are not Montenegrin citizens, so they could not be included on this list. However, given the space they are dedicated in our public life \u2013 beginning with the media, through the coffee bars to parliamentary debates \u2013 it is obvious that their social influence significantly overcomes the importance that a merchandiser and a hospitality industry worker should have, regardless the adjective \u201ccontroversial\u201d related to them ever since the moment their names became publicly known.<\/p>\n

It sounds logical. But, is it? Or would it be that all of us \u2013 the author and readers of this text \u2013 are on the way of taking for granted the presence of this unsolvable social-political-economic enigma which lasts for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

On the lists, let\u2019s call them \u201cblack\u201d and \u201cwhite\u201d, of the most powerful people in Montenegro there is Milo \u0110ukanovi\u0107, the man who has been ruling Montenegro for almost two decades as a Prime Minister, President of the state or Vice President of the ruling party. There is also his brother Aco who was at the time of a mono-party system a youth political activist and the organizer of student parties and today a majority owner of one of three most important banks in the state, attractive, millions worth real estate, and shares of local companies. Stanko Suboti\u0107, a former tailor from the cities of Ub, Paris and Belgrade gained wealth by doing business through Montenegro that was estimated by specialized economic magazines before the global economic crisis at half a million euros. Just like Suboti\u0107, Darko \u0160ari\u0107 can justify his position on the \u201cblack\u201d list: if not with anything else but with the \u201cbusiness\u201d biography and a fact that he is one of rare Montenegrin \u201cbusinessman\u201d whose capital origin is well known: he stole it from his neighbor.<\/p>\n

In September 1993 in the town of Pljevlja \u0160ari\u0107 stole from his neighbor, a tailor, 72 thousand DEM, one kilo of gold and he escaped abroad. Five years later, he came back and paid his dues. In return charges were withdrawn. Since January this year Darko \u0160ari\u0107 is escaped again. Previously he had developed his intercontinental cocaine business which had, according to the claims of the Serbian Special Prosecutor Miljko Radisavljevi\u0107, a turnover of approximately five billion euros!<\/p>\n

But how did Branislav Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 become a part of this society? He is not in politics, Interpol is not after him. Registry of the Commercial Court testifies that he was not a founder, a co-owner, a member of management or the authorized person of none of the companies registered in Montenegro. He is not on the website of 10 biggest shareholders or in the Registry of pledges.<\/p>\n

\u201cMi\u0107unovi\u0107 deserves a place on the top of the list of the most powerful people because he enjoys respect of many important people in the country\u201d, \u201cVijesti\u201d supported their choice at the end of last year. \u201cEven though most of the people from the list of 10 most powerful is directly involved in making important decisions in the state, some of them manage important institutions and services, but none of them individually, excluding the Prime Minister and his brother, cannot have in Montenegrin political and business establishment bigger authority than Brano Mi\u0107unovi\u0107. Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 is the person who is addressed by many: parties in conflict or people with some unsettled disputes, and he is the one whos word counts in the end. He is said to be doing it successfully. The question is whether it is because those people love him and respect him, or because they are afraid of him. Maybe both! As far as we know Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 is now dealing with legal business, real estate mostly\u201d.<\/p>\n

What Medojevi\u0107 suggested to the government as a possible solution for \u201cthe affair \u0160ari\u0107\u201d was on the same route: \u201cI suppose that we, as politically responsible people, should bring a conclusion that one delegation of the Parliament address Mr. Mi\u0107unovi\u0107, to schedule the meeting, to go and kiss the hand of Montenegrin sultan and to ask him to extradite Mr. \u0160ari\u0107, so that we can continue our European and Euro-Atlantic integration\u201d.<\/p>\n

The influence of Mi\u0107unovi\u0107, should obviously not be questioned. If it is to be believed to what is said and written about him, he has obviously overcome the borders of Montenegro. Therefore, answerless remain the following question: what this man sucks his power from.<\/p>\n

Four years after beating Zoran Kljaji\u0107, the Basic Court pronounced its verdict \u2013 the accused Aco \u0110ukanovi\u0107 was not guilty. Three years later, at the retrial the charge was found outdated.<\/p>\n

POWER, JUSTICE AND LAW:<\/strong> What is already known about Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 should not be repeated. Because, in the stories about the \u201clast survived from the generation of tough guys from the Belgrade asphalt\u201d, \u201cthe man more powerful than Milo \u0110ukanovi\u0107\u201d, there are almost no facts. It is enough to say that according to the available data, Branislav Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 was targeted by domestic judiciary \u2013 from SFRY to Montenegrin \u2013 only one single time.<\/p>\n

In October 2000 he was accused of killing with a gun at the stairs of the ER of the Clinical Center of Podgorica, before several witnesses the already wounded Radovan Kova\u010devi\u0107 while he was being taken in the hospital. The Higher Court Council presided by the judge Radovan Mandi\u0107 liberated Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 due to lack of evidence. Witnesses have withdrawn their original statements. In the trial no one was able to testify about whose was the \u201chairy arm\u201d that \u201cemerged from the dark\u201d and fired a gun. The retrial had the same outcome. The acquittal decision was finally confirmed in November 2007 by the Appellate Court.<\/p>\n

This was neither first nor last case of witnesses changing their testimony and thus contributing to the acquittal verdict. However, it is much rarer case that evidences disappear from the court safe in case of murder without making any fuss about it. At the trial to Branislav Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 this actually happened, and the authors of the serial on football mafia shown on TVB92 \u201cRules of the Game\u201d reminded us about it.<\/p>\n

Out of the above mentioned five persons Aco \u0110ukanovi\u0107 was the last one who was accused. He was accused of participating in a fight on 4 June 2002 together with his friend Vladislav Pajo Jabu\u010danin in the lobby of the hotel \u201cCrna Gora\u201d in Podgorica in which Zoran Feki Kljaji\u0107 got serious bodily injuries (double fracture of the skull). The accused, according to Montenegrin media, beat Kljaji\u0107 with a pistol grip they kicked him and hit him with their hands all over his body and head.<\/p>\n

\"AcoDjukanovic\"In detention in which he spent several following days Aco \u0110ukanovi\u0107<\/strong> stated in a letter that was presented to the public by his lawyer Dragoljub \u0110ukanovi\u0107 that himself and Jabu\u010danin voluntarily turned to police in Podgorica and since then they were in detention. Before and after this case this information was usually announced by the police. \u0110ukanovi\u0107 offered his version of the event: \u201cKljaji\u0107\u2019s insults that I had ignored until this incident have been lasting for quite some time. However since Kljaji\u0107 has crossed the line of acceptable and decent behavior and since he dared to offend the honor of my family \u2013 my old mother, my sister, my sister in law \u2013 I reacted in the only way acceptable \u2013 in the way I believe every Montenegrin and every man who respects himself and his family would react. For doing so I am ready to bear all legal consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n

The investigating judge of the Basic Court in Podgorica Radomir Ivanovi\u0107 did not take the offered explanation for granted. That is why the official version of the event was somewhat different. \u0110ukanovi\u0107 was accused of participating in a fight while his friend Jabu\u010danin was accused of criminal act of causing serious bodily injury. \u201cIt turns that the one who actually defended more a family honor was Vladislav Jabu\u010danin rather than \u0110ukanovi\u0107\u201d, stated \u201cMonitor\u201d ten years ago.<\/p>\n

Four years after beating Kljaji\u0107, the Basic Court pronounced a verdict \u2013 Aco \u0110ukanovi\u0107 is not guilty. Three years later at a retrial it was stated that charge was outdated.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, \u0110ukanovi\u0107 \u2013 a banker was known before and after the events in the hotel \u201cCrna Gora\u201d as a man who tends to resolve misunderstandings with violence. The former President of Montenegro Momir Bulatovi\u0107 in his book \u201cRules of Silence\u201d describes a fight in 1994 \u201cin which Aco fought together with his men with a crew headed by a tough Belgrade guy\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the hotel \u201cPla\u017ea\u201d in Herceg Novi they took out their guns, there was gun fire, but there were no victims. The police made a thorough report and that was all they did\u201d. Also, Bulatovi\u0107 claims in his book that at that time Aco \u0110ukanovi\u0107 was \u201cthe exclusive fuel provider for the Italian smuggling speedboats\u201d, and he also attributes him (without any evidence presented) some much more severe sins.<\/p>\n

Aco \u0110ukanovi\u0107, as reported by the daily \u201cPobjeda\u201d, in April 2004 sued Bulatovi\u0107 before the Belgrade court for, as he states, \u201cuntruths and defamation and insults\u201d mentioned in his book \u201cRules of Silence\u201d. The charge will, as it was announced, include the publisher as well as all the media which broadcasted false quotes of the former President of Montenegro. The text ends with \u0110ukanovi\u0107\u2019s message: \u201cDespite the evil, meanness, hoax and false statements from the previous period addressed to me and my family my Christian beliefs and trust in God and people require me to pray to God and St Vasilije Ostro\u0161ki to forgive him his sins and to show him the right way and to help me defend myself from lies and evil of the people whom I have never done anything wrong to\u201d. In the archives of Serbian and Montenegrin media there is no information on the epilogue of this charge.<\/p>\n

Three years later after the summer 2007 the local media have shyly mentioned here and there the information on the physical fight of Aco \u0110ukanovi\u0107 and Miomir Migo\u0161a, Mayor of Podgorica. The police have, as the well informed claim, skillfully covered up this dispute about \u201cthe directions of urban development\u201d of the Capital.<\/p>\n

Finally, since summer last year there were rumors about gun fight between the Prime Minister\u2019s brother and Darko \u0160ari\u0107 in which, allegedly, the boss from Pljevlja was beaten. When these rumors started appearing in the media in the region, Prime Minister \u0110ukanovi\u0107 denied it all. \u201cThis is a speculation, and it is well known where it was launched from and with what intention\u201d, said \u0110ukanovi\u0107 in the interview to TV B92, \u201cthey (Darko and Aco) have never even met\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"DarkoSaric\"Let\u2019s go back to the court room. In Belgrade a trial is underway against a group accused of damaging the state budget by tenths of millions of euros by smuggling cigarettes. According to accusations Stanko Suboti\u0107 Cane was heading the \u201ctobacco mafia\u201d. And he was not among the accused in the court room only because he is out of reach of the Serbian police and judiciary who have issued the international warrant for him. According to the same principle the court room is for now staying away from Darko \u0160ari\u0107<\/strong>. However the man whose house he had robbed 17 years ago says that \u0160ari\u0107, as far as he remembers, was convicted in absence to a several-year imprisonment. President of the Supreme Court of Montenegro Vesna Medenica could not confirm this information. She has recently stated that she does not know whether \u0160ari\u0107 was convicted in Montenegro. If not about other things, this speaks for itself about the professional curiosity of the first lady of Montenegrin judiciary \u2013 while the police officers from Europe to America were searching for \u0160ari\u0107, and while journalists were trying to find out any detail about him, the officials of the local judiciary did not even bother to check their own archives and records on criminal liability.<\/p>\n

\u0160ari\u0107, however, is not a total mystery for the local security service. In the Blue Book which contains data on Montenegrin underground the Police and the Agency for National Security (ANB) mention Darko and Du\u0161ko \u0160ari\u0107 as \u201cin security sense interesting persons, who originate from this region and who have escaped to Western Europe to avoid jail or liquidation\u201d. These data were presented in 2007 to the Security Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro. Today we know that at that time Darko \u0160ari\u0107 was already building his cocaine empire in Montenegro and in the region. But, this is a topic for another story.<\/p>\n

Finally Milo \u0110ukanovi\u0107 is the only member of \u201cthe five\u201d who has never been accused of any criminal offense. However, if we believe the Italian Prosecutor Giuseppe Schelsi Montenegrin Prime Minister has a good excuse. He is protected by his immunity. That is why a part of Schelsi\u2019s indictment which refers to him is \u2018archived\u2019. Permanently or until another time \u2013 this is yet to be seen.<\/p>\n

FAMILY, FRIENDSHIP AND BUSINESS RELATIONS:<\/strong> Name of the Prosecutor Schelsi brings us to the third important element in a search for the answer to the question: is there a pyramid power that Medojevi\u0107 and Mandi\u0107 talk about? It is connections we are actually talking about.<\/p>\n

After a ten-year investigation, a court decision should be soon reached in Bari about whether the court will accept the Schelsi\u2019s indictment which includes among other suspects from Serbia, Italy and Montenegro, along with the \u2018archived\u2019 \u0110ukanovi\u0107, two more heroes of this story suspected of international smuggling of cigarettes more than one billion dollars worth. These are Branislav Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 and Stanko Suboti\u0107 who appear in court documents and media as some of main actors of years lasting \u201ctransit\u201d of cigarettes through Montenegro to Italy.<\/p>\n

The two of them were mentioned in Montenegrin media also as collaborators of the Belgrade businessman Nenad \u0110or\u0111evi\u0107 in the business of purchase of several attractive real estates in the Riviera of Budva. Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 denied this information, but he did not give any public statement when the information was launched about the plans of himself and Suboti\u0107, \u0110ukanovi\u0107 and Svetozar Marovi\u0107 to build the bridge that would connect the island of St Nikola with the coast of Budva.<\/p>\n

Apart from the fact that they are countrymen, Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 is connected with the brothers \u0110ukanovi\u0107 through the documents which mention all of them, that is, the so- called Swiss indictment based on which a group of Italian and Swiss citizens was trialed for money laundering earned in tobacco smuggling through Montenegro.<\/p>\n

\"milo-djukanovic\"Friendship is what connects Milo \u0110ukanovi\u0107<\/strong> and Stanko Suboti\u0107 (both of them confirmed it) which originates from the beginning of the last decade and the suspicion that they have jointly participated in illegal tobacco business and financial transactions. First, as claimed by Suboti\u0107 himself, Suboti\u0107 lent to \u0110ukanovi\u0107 100 dollars. \u201cOnce we were in a group of people sitting together and \u0110ukanovi\u0107 needed 100 dollars and I lent them to him. I saw him after two months on a beach and he had the envelope with 100 dollars enclosed prepared in his wife\u2019s purse. I couldn\u2019t believe\u201d. Then \u0110ukanovi\u0107\u2019s \u201cFirst Bank\u201d lent to Suboti\u0107 some 20 million euros he needed for some business deal. Then they got stuck with pay-backs for a while, but in the end the debts were recently paid.<\/p>\n

Banking business is what, for now, connects brothers \u0110ukanovi\u0107 with Darko \u0160ari\u0107. Milo and Darko have taken loans from the same bank (\u201cHypo Alpe Adria Bank). At the same time Aco and Milo\u2019s bank \u2013 despite the ban imposed by the Central Bank \u2013 credited a company owned by \u0160ari\u0107. What these businesses have in common is that each of them had a procedural deficiency. Suboti\u0107 says that he knows \u0160ari\u0107 only superficially, for only a year or two, and that they got acquainted by the son of Miroslav Mi\u0161kovi\u0107. Serbian media, calling upon the police sources, claim that their relations are much stronger \u2013 and illegal. Allegedly \u0160ari\u0107 was using Suboti\u0107\u2019s channels for money laundering while Cane was receiving from him cash which he needed to disguise his secret off-shore accounts from the interested investigators from Serbia and Italy.<\/p>\n

The public, for now, is not familiar with potential relations between Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 and \u0160ari\u0107. Director of the Police Administration Veselin Veljovi\u0107 claimed that \u201cBranislav Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 is not connected with \u0160ari\u0107 by any means or with the actual action \u2018the Balkan Warrior\u2019\u201d. Then, short after this statement the announcement from Italy came stating that Mi\u0107unovi\u0107\u2019s cousin from Belgrade is one of the suspects in the operation \u201cChess-Matt\u201d in which one of the lines of \u0160ari\u0107\u2019s drug-cartel was broken. Du\u0161an Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 was recently arrested in Budva where he was hiding after his warrant was issued.<\/p>\n

What if it turns out that other official truths about the activities of the organized crime in Montenegro are (un)truthful as well? Will this be a proof of the claims of two opposition leaders, or will it only be the confirmation of incapability of the state to deal with the problems of corruption and crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who is ruling Montenegro? There has been two months since the opposition leaders Andrija Mandi\u0107 and Neboj\u0161a Medojevi\u0107 have publicly stated the names of five people \u201cwho make a key connection between the government and organized crime\u201c in Montenegro. On the top of the pyramid they placed Branislav Brano Mi\u0107unovi\u0107 from Nik\u0161i\u0107 who is, as<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,69],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conflict-of-interest","8":"category-investigative-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mans.co.me\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mans.co.me\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mans.co.me\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mans.co.me\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mans.co.me\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mans.co.me\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mans.co.me\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mans.co.me\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mans.co.me\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mans.co.me\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}