Despite high expectations and promises, four years after the changes, very little has been learned about the connections of the former political, security and criminal milieu, and the success of the newly formed Inquiry Committee will depend on the overall political climate, culture and communication practices of key political actors.
This was told to ''Vijesti'' by the president of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Alternatives (IA), Stevo Muk, commenting on the formation of a parliamentary Inquiry Committee that will deal with cases of politically motivated murders that have occurred since the introduction of multi-party politics to the present day, as well as the circumstances of physical attacks and beatings of journalists and other free intellectuals by police officers known as the "black threes".
"What we have learned to some extent is available to us thanks to Sky communications, and for a very limited period of time, a limited number of persons and criminal events. That is why every initiative that can contribute to learning more about other dark pages from that period, to accessing hidden documents, enabling public testimonies from those with first-class knowledge, and trying to achieve a political and social consensus regarding that period, the role and responsibilities of various political and social structures and individuals, is important," Muk said.
The authorities expect that, with the formation of the Inquiry Committee, cases such as the murder of the editor-in-chief of Dan will finally be clarified. Duško Jovanović, police inspector Slavoljub Šćekić and brutal attacks on journalists.
The opposition believes that the formation of this committee is more an expression of the current government's political inability to ensure the efficient and independent work of the institutions that should deal with this issue.
The decision to form the Inquiry Committee was adopted by the Parliament on Thursday, with the votes of 44 MPs of the majority. The opposition did not attend the session because the President of the Parliament Andrija Mandic imposed a 15-day suspension.
"The reasons for opening a parliamentary investigation and establishing a Committee are contained in the fact that the circumstances under which the events in question took place created a clear impression that in the previous two decades there was no political will or institutional responsibility to shed light on the events in question," the Decision states.
DON'T MISS IT
The committee's work, which includes conducting an investigation and submitting a report to the Parliament, is set for 90 days, with a possible extension of no longer than 15 days. This parliamentary body should have ten members - five from the government and five from the opposition. The Decision does not specify which cases the Inquiry Committee will deal with.
Mandić said at the session that it was time for "after a series of steps they have taken as the new government, to face the dark shadows of murders and beatings that were an everyday occurrence during the rule of the former regime."
He proposed for the president of that body Vladimir Dobričanin from United Montenegro.
The Committee was formed in accordance with the Law on Parliamentary Investigation, which stipulates that the Parliament may open a parliamentary investigation and establish a committee of inquiry to collect information and facts about events related to the work of state bodies.
Stevo Muk recalls the study by the Alternative Institute “How to Make Investigations in the Parliament More Successful” which, as he says, shows that their recommendations are still valid and that improvements, or amendments, to the Law on Parliamentary Investigations are needed. Some of the most important ones, as he states, are the prescription of penal provisions for failure to respond to the summons of the Inquiry Committee, failure to provide information and giving false statements, the prescription of the obligation for the chairman of the committee, in communication with the members, to prepare a final report that will be considered by the Inquiry Committee and increasing the transparency of its work (publication of all minutes, reports, statements, decisions, initiatives).
He recalls two cases for which a committee of inquiry was formed, but no final report was adopted.
These are the committees for the ''Telekom'' affair from 2012 and the ''Snimak'' affair from 2013.
In both cases, after the investigation, both parliamentary parties (the ruling majority and the opposition) remained at their initial positions and claims and failed to reach a minimum agreement on the disputed issues, and both investigations resulted in the adoption of a technical report.
"Therefore, even after the investigations were conducted, citizens still did not have objective data on the scandals that shook the public," said Muk.
He says that research by the Alternative Institute showed that in 2021, for the first time in many years, two initiatives were submitted to open a parliamentary investigation and form a committee of inquiry. One was related to the actions of the security services during the events in Cetinje on September 4 and 5, during the enthronement of the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral. Joanikia and on the occasion of collecting information regarding the Možura wind farm project.
He recalls that the initiative to form an inquiry committee for the events in Cetinje was adopted a second time, but the committee was not formed, and in the meantime a new convocation of the Assembly was formed.
"In February 2023, an inquiry committee was not formed regarding the Možura case because the MPs could not agree on who was the government and who was the opposition," said Muk.
The IA supports the use of the parliamentary investigation mechanism more in the future, but points out that it also contains certain limitations.
"When a proposal to form an inquiry committee is submitted to the Minister of Justice, he is the one who must determine whether a particular case is subject to court proceedings. In the event that court proceedings are being conducted, the decision on the proposal is postponed until the final conclusion of the court proceedings, and in the event that court proceedings begin after the formation of the inquiry committee, the inquiry committee ceases to operate until the final conclusion," Muk stated.
PES to open files from World War II to multi-party democracy
The Europe Now Movement (PES) expects the Inquiry Committee to thoroughly devote itself to shedding light on all the scandals that have not been resolved in the previous period.
"As a subject of discontinuity, we support the clarification of the matter that is the subject of this committee, because we believe that it is crucial to establish all the facts related to political persecution, pressure, but also repression against minority peoples during the 1990s and later, as well as against political dissenters of the then large joint DPS," the PES MP told ''Vijesti'' Gordan Stojović.
PES, he says, is also in principle committed to opening up complete documentation and files from the period from World War II to the introduction of multi-party politics, because they believe "that many affairs that have long been hidden from the public should be brought to light, following the example of their American partners."
He said that the opposition has its seats on the Inquiry Committee and they hope to actively participate in its work.
"If, unfortunately, the opposition does not participate in the work of the committee, it deepens the suspicion that the subject of the investigation relates precisely to their heritage, which they want to hide," said Stojović.
"Black Triplets" a wound that still bleeds
The "black three" affair shook Montenegro in 2013 when former Montenegrin police director Veselin Veljović and former head of the Directorate for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions (UIKS) Miljan Perović responded to accusations by former member of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SAJ) Brajuško Brajušković in the prosecution office.
Brajušković then said that Veljović was the organizer of the "black trios" that beat unfit journalists and opposition members and that he was the leader of one of the trios, explaining that the beating squad was coordinated by Miljan Perović. Veljović and Perović denied those claims, and the prosecution decided that there was no evidence against them.
Head of the Democrats Parliamentary Club Boris Bogdanovic He told ''Vijesti'' that the newly formed Inquiry Committee is the last chance to finally break down the walls of silence and cover-up.
"This committee must expose the web of crimes that have shaken every corner of this country for years - political assassinations, attacks on journalists and the 'black threes' are a wound that still bleeds. If anyone thinks the past will remain undiscovered - they are mistaken," he said.
He points out that it is time not to shift responsibility from one shoulder to another, but to name those who signed decisions, issued orders, and covered up the truth.
"We expect that the cases that were symbols of lawlessness will finally be brought to light - the murders of Duško Jovanović, Slavoljub Šćekić, the murders of ministers and advisors, police officers, brutal attacks on journalists, and secret force squadrons that captured, tortured and liquidated at the dictates of the regime," said Bogdanović.
He tells the opposition that they "don't think they will stop justice by boycotting" and if they try to undermine the work of the committee, they will not undermine the truth - they will only show that they are afraid of the truth and "the Inquiry Committee will work with them or without them."
"Inflation of Mandić's ideas is protection against loss of political rating"
The DPS says that no one is against speeding up certain prosecutorial investigations, just as everyone advocates for more efficient operations by the security sector in relation to the detection and prosecution of perpetrators of the most serious crimes.
"However, when you have the inflation of Mandić's initiatives in a short period of time, starting with declaring drug cartels as terrorist organizations, and the formation of an Inquiry Committee on politically motivated murders and the so-called 'black threes', then it shows that in the parliamentary majority they have the ambition to take over the jurisdiction of the prosecution and courts, in order to protect themselves from an irreversible loss of political rating," the head of the DPS Parliamentary Group told Vijesti. Andrija Nikolić.
He said that the Inquiry Board was designed as an additional control mechanism for the opposition, and the opposition has used it exclusively so far, but "when the government thinks of forming an Inquiry Board, it is their admission that the institutions they manage are incapable of doing their job and shedding light on certain murders."
"But yes, what we also believe - the Inquiry Board should serve its founders as a means of deterring the judiciary from investigations that may be initiated against them," Nikolić said.
The Civic Movement URA announced that they are ready to participate in the work of the Committee and that they will always support any initiative aimed at shedding light on politically motivated crimes and strengthening the rule of law.
"However, we believe that the formation of this Inquiry Committee is more an expression of the political impotence of the current government than a real desire to resolve these cases," the party's executive director told Vijesti. Zoran Mikić.
Despite this, he says, they are ready to participate in the work of the committee to ensure that any attempt at manipulation and distraction is exposed in a timely manner.
"We will make a decision on the members' proposal in accordance with the further development of the situation and the specifics of the committee's work," he announced.
He recalls that inquiry committees are traditionally a mechanism used by the opposition to point out government failures and demand accountability from institutions, and the question arises as to why the government itself does not have concrete results in resolving these cases.
"If there really is a political will to uncover the truth, then the right mechanisms for that are the institutions of the system - from the prosecutor's office to the National Security Council, and not committees formed by the government to cover up its incompetence," Mikić believes.
According to him, if there was even a shred of democratic capacity in the ruling majority, the committee would be run by the opposition, and not by the government choosing its favorites, because this practice did not exist even during the thirty-year regime.
Nikolić: They want to turn the parliament into a headquarters for the battle for Nikšić
Andrija Nikolić states that by forming the Inquiry Committee contrary to the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, Andrija Mandić and the parliamentary majority continued to pander to the House of Representatives of all citizens for their political needs in the election campaign.
"Their idea is to turn the Parliament into a headquarters for the Battle of Nikšić, as they are in a panic that they will lose that city too," said Nikolić.
He recalls that the Rules of Procedure clearly stipulate that the Inquiry Committee is chaired by an opposition MP, which means that he is proposed by the opposition.
"During the previous government, in the period up to 2020, the opposition always proposed the chairman of the inquiry committee, while in this case, we are witnessing a new procedural stunt, in which the parliamentary majority determines who will chair the inquiry committee on behalf of the opposition. Furthermore, we cannot consider MP Dobricanin an opposition MP, bearing in mind that he voted for the election of Andrija Mandić as Speaker of the Parliament, and that he belongs to a separate MP's Club, therefore, neither the government nor the opposition," Nikolić stated.
Bonus video:
