Momir's rules

"My entire political career passed under the shadow of Slobodan Milošević. Such an impression was created by many, and I did not particularly try to refute it".

This is what Momir Bulatović, the first president of Montenegro elected in direct elections, who was buried yesterday in Kuči, said. And it will probably be remembered that way, although those who know and remember the relationship between Bulatović and Milošević prefer to talk about the Stockholm syndrome - a psychological condition when the hostage and the kidnapper get closer in certain situations.

As the son of a lieutenant colonel of the JNA, Bulatović was born in Belgrade, finished primary and secondary school in Zadar, and began his academic career as an assistant at the Faculty of Economics in Titograd, simultaneously working as a journalist for "University Word".

You just need to go

"To begin with, we have enough will, strength and knowledge. It is only necessary that you leave the political scene". That recipe of the then secretary of the university organization for the solution of the crisis, communicated in the face of the paralyzed communist leadership of Montenegro, placed him in the center of the political stage.

Bulatović, as the second after Ljubiša Stanković, and Milo Đukanović from the second plane of the constellation of AB revolutionaries, soon became its ruling expression. In 1989, they took over the communist party, and thus the government in the republic, dominantly determining the future of Montenegro in the next decade.

Bulatović was elected president of the Presidency of Montenegro in December 1990. In an unequal match, the master defeated two professors - Novak Kilibarda and Ljubiša Stanković, the latter after the second round of elections.

Thus, at the age of 34, he sat down in the presidential chair, while Đukanović became prime minister. It only formally separated the duo from the helmsman in Belgrade, who appeared together everywhere - including the gathering at Gazimestan, which they went to together by helicopter. "At the age of 29, when I offered him (Djukanovic) to be prime minister, he said he didn't know how to do that. Then I told him that I don't know how to be the president of the republic either, let's do it together. And we did it together in the most difficult period of Montenegro".

The Hague episode - a signature for the independence of Montenegro

Wars, sanctions of the FRY, international peace conferences to resolve the Yugoslav crisis followed, of which the one in The Hague, at the beginning of September 1991, where Bulatović signed the independence of Montenegro, will be remembered.

Armed with the attitude of the republican parliament to make a decision in the interest of Montenegro, Bulatović, according to his own story, took off towards Batajnica from where, contrary to expectations, he flew in one, and the others from the Yugoslav and Serbian leadership in another plane to The Hague.

"Surprised, I told the colonel that I was going to The Hague, not to Prague, where the plane landed. This was followed by an explanation that the plane landed there to refuel, even though it was refueled in Batajnica."

Bulatović was about three hours late for the summit in The Hague, which according to the directors of this play, should be enough for the decision to be made without the then dubious president of Montenegro. Bulatović first signed Lord Carrington's plan, which envisaged independence for all six republics of the Yugoslav federation, and later withdrew his plan under unexplained circumstances.

The civil authorities were at least involved in all of that, said Bulatović, without naming anyone and trying to prove that through subsequent analysis of the Hague document, he determined that some things were not good and that this was the reason for later withdrawing the signature.

Informally, in close circles, he confessed that he had never been so afraid in his life as when, this time, on the same plane, he was returning to Belgrade with Milosevic, because the latter allegedly repeated to him every five minutes "Happy independence, Momo".

A call against the "crazed Ustaštvo"

In June 1991, before the Hague Conference, Bulatović called on the Montenegrin reservists to withdraw from Bania. This was allegedly preceded by a conversation with Milošević, in which the young Montenegrin leadership saw that the Belgrade leader would easily sell them if necessary. Allegedly, to Podgorica's remark that the situation in Montenegro is difficult to control because the response to the reserve is "102 percent, and in Serbia only 2 percent", Milošević replied that "not a single bullet was fired from the territory of Serbia".

Whether and how the events surrounding The Hague influenced Bulatović or not, he was the only one who, already in October 1991, called for the "anti-fascist front against the crazed Ustaštvo".

Five years later, the son of a retired lieutenant colonel and himself a reserve officer, explained that the aggression against Dubrovnik was the result of a "general's trap" behind which was Veljko Kadijević, who told him that "30 Ustashas are going to Montenegro, and the people will not respond if you don't convince them":

"I am not proud that our boys took part in the war, but it was my duty to stand in front of those soldiers," said Bulatović.

From an opponent to Milošević's candidate

Because of the Hague episode and some of his views, he was constantly under the suspicion of Milošević, who in the race for the next presidential election supported Branko Kostić, the acting president of the SFRY Presidency until recently. Kostić accused the small Montenegrin leadership of working for independence "under the grain".

Thanks to the votes of minorities and liberals who "chose the lesser of two evils", Bulatović retained the presidential chair at the beginning of January 1993.

This was preceded by a TV duel led by his later comrade-in-arms and one of his closest friends, Emilo Labudović. During the duel, Kostić, among other things, took out documents that allegedly showed that Montenegro from

Serbia imports three times more food than it needs and accused the Montenegrin government of smuggling.

"If you think that it benefits Montenegro and the FRY to wave papers that show how oil is obtained, then go ahead, Mr. Kostić, I assure you that after that we will not have oil," replied Bulatović.

Four years later, after the conflict in the DPS, in which he initially had a big advantage, Bulatović again entered the presidential race in 1997. This time, he had his comrade Đukanović on the line, whom he previously called a "magician".

Only now he was in Kostić's role. From an opponent of Slob's candidate, he became Slob's candidate.

In the TV duel now led by Vinka Jovović, Bulatović appeared from the position of "Yugoslavia without an alternative", while Đukanović advocated the thesis of the fight for "the dignified and equal position of Montenegro within the Yugoslav federation", marking Milošević as the main obstacle to that.

During the duel, both candidates aired their dirty laundry, accusing each other of smuggling bananas, oil and the general criminalization of society, without the slightest sense of their own responsibility for such a state of affairs.

I could, Bulatović elaborated later, find someone of his own "Brković" so that "protected by my position and guided by my influence, I could earn millions that would really be mine". At that time, Danilo Vuksanović was known as Momir's "brković", although Bulatović never earned his millions.

And like a few years ago, the votes of the minorities and liberals decided the elections. Allegedly, Slavko Perović even considered supporting Bulatović, estimating that it would be easier to remove him later.

Bulatović did not admit defeat, which led to the January demonstrations, which fortunately ended without bloodshed. He later said that he refused the two million dollars to admit defeat, which was allegedly offered to him by the US envoy Galbraith.

Inseparable with Milosevic

In the midst of the campaign for the parliamentary elections in 1998, Bulatović, now as the leader of a faction of the DPS from which he and his supporters founded the SNP, was elected federal prime minister.

"Uteče", the inscriptions appeared on the posters with Bulatović all over Montenegro. Bulatović unreservedly supports Milošević, so much so that during the NATO intervention in Podgorica in 1999, Predrag Bulatović and some officials of the SNP agreed with Svetozar Marović on a resolution on civil peace that was adopted by the Montenegrin parliament, which had the effect of reducing tensions in Montenegro. Gori, which, for the second time in a short time, was on the verge of civil war.

He retired from active politics after the fall of Milošević on October XNUMXth, after which there was a split in the SNP, which forms the government with DOS at the federal level. Bulatović formed the People's Socialist Party, which did not achieve a notable result in the elections in Montenegro.

Bulatović published "Rules of Silence" in 2005, which will serve historiographers to study the spirit of a time

After publishing the book "More than a game - less than life" in 1991, in which he describes his first days in politics in an unusually honest way, Bulatović published "Rules of Silence" in 2005, which will serve historiographers to study the spirit of a time. In "Rules of Silence" Bulatović described the recent comrades from both DPS and SNP in his own unique way. Although the most quoted parts are about Đukanović, such as the one that "he has a supernatural ability to speak most convincingly when he is not telling the truth", the impression is that Bulatović made the most convincing harsh words against Svetozar Marović, who allegedly asked the patriarch to terminate the godfather. Along with Marović, Bulatović was one of the main creators of useful ambiguities and catchphrases, such as those about "Orthodox atheist", "Montenegrin name, Serbian surname".

He had no official communication with Đukanović, but, as he admitted, they greeted each other civilly in recent years after the latter offered help in his son's tragedy and in connection with the documentation for The Hague.

He remained loyal to Milošević, prepared his defense and collected money for it, the last time he visited him in The Hague. He remained loyal to the political beliefs of the second half of the nineties - anti-Americanism, anti-globalism, the idea that the Vatican, America and Germany are to blame for the bloody wars in Yugoslavia... In September 2001, the Hague Prosecutor's Office, expanding the indictment against Milosevic, in the group of "participants in a joint criminal enterprise ” also mentioned the name of Momir Bulatović.

"In that moment my whole life stopped". Bulatović was never charged in The Hague. He did not leave the mark of a war criminal to his children, which he was afraid of, or to Montenegro. Official Montenegro did not repay him.