The Inquiry Committee for Gathering Information and Facts about the Actions of State Authorities in Cases of Politically Motivated Murders and Attacks on Journalists decided today to launch a parliamentary investigation into nine murders.
The members unanimously decided that the Committee would deal with the murders of Pavle Bulatović, Duško Jovanović, Slavoljub Šćekić, Darko-Beli Raspopović, Goran Žugić, Miloš-Miško Krstović, Mladen Klikovac, Blagota-Baja Sekulić and Srđan Vojičić.
The inquiry committee will also deal with the cases of attacks on a number of journalists and intellectuals - Duško Jovanović, Gojko Mitrović, Tufik Softić, Željko Ivanović, Radovan Aleksić, Predrag Šuković, Vojo Laković, Mladen Stojović, Jevrem Brković, Momir Vojvodić and Aleksandar Saša Pejanović. The leader of the Democratic People's Party, Milan Knežević, proposed adding the attack on Olivera Lakić to this list.
The proposal of the Democratic Party of Socialists to investigate the assassination of Vuk Drašković in Budva and the arrest of a group at the Crna Gora Hotel on the eve of the 1997 presidential elections was also supported.
The Committee supported Knežević's proposal to leave room for nomination of additional topics.
Committee President Andrija Nikolić said that after they precisely define what today's decisions are, they will send the initiative to the Ministry of Justice and, after receiving its opinion, convene a new session.
Nikolić: There are no final verdicts that would qualify any murder as political, we need to be careful
One should be somewhat cautious and reserved because there are no final judgments that would qualify any murder as a murder with a political agenda, said Nikolić.
He said that the Decision on the formation of the committee states that the Inquiry Committee was formed to collect information and facts about the actions of state authorities in 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 attacks and beatings of journalists and other free intellectuals by police officers known as the "black three", who were publicly reported to be responsible for beating up political dissenters of the then government.
"So it would be more useful in this formulation to say 'allegedly politically motivated murders' because a decision conceived in this way directs the narrative in a different direction... The political motives are clear to me, we will discuss them, but I felt the need to warn about this important detail at the beginning of the session that has no basis in final court rulings," said Nikolić.
Nikolić said that he was informed this morning from the office of Parliament Speaker Andrija Mandić that the Ministry had sent a letter to the Inquiry Committee of over 150 pages, asking whether they were conducting investigations into some cases.
"As usual, we do things in a hurry, there was no time for the committee members to get to know each other in more detail. I suggest that this be done in the coming days in order to specify the scope of topics that the Inquiry Committee will address, the methodology and workflow of activities, the schedule of sessions and topics...", he said.
The Committee adopted the Rules of Procedure.
Mandić: Dealing with serious murders
Parliament Speaker Andrija Mandić said that as the initiator of this idea, he expected and believed that he could move some things forward.
"I wanted to address the Ministry of Justice additionally through the methodology of work, they informed us that there are many cases on this topic, where we can conduct a discussion, that the court proceedings have either been completed or have not started. I wanted the Ministry to inform us whether we can deal with the issues of the serious murders of the Minister of Defense Pavle Vulatović, the editor-in-chief of Dan Duško Jovanović, Slavoljub Šćekić, Darko Beli Raspopovič, Goran Žugič, Miloš Miško Krstović, Mladen Klikovac, Blagota Bajo Sekulić and Srđan Vojičić, for whom there is a public narrative that they have a political background," said Mandić.
He suggested that the committee also address the issues of physical attacks on journalists and other free intellectuals such as Jovanović, Gojko Mitrović, Mladen Stojović, Momir Vojvodić, Željko Ivanović, Tufik Softić, Predrag Šuković, Aleksandar Saša Pejanović, Vojo Laković, Radovan Aleksić and Jevrem Brković.
"We are not a court, a prosecutor's office, but we can discuss these topics. We should invite the holders of prosecutorial authority and the police to hear what has been done. We should invite those who performed their duties before them and were at the head of these structures, including the Ministry of Interior and the National Security Agency, certain heads of security centers, victims of these attacks and those people who have stated in the past that they participated in the attacks," Mandić said, adding that he firmly and strongly believes that the committee will produce results that can serve the prosecution and judiciary.
"That those responsible should not be at large and that citizens should hear what was happening at a time when Montenegro was trying to gain freedom and become a state governed by the rule of law."
DPS MP Oskar Huter said that it is important to present to the public what the powers and scope of this committee are.
"It is not humane to rub salt in wounds for the sake of cheap political points on numerous other topics where Montenegro is recording bizarre results. Also, what is it that the Inquiry Committee can find out, contribute, investigate that those institutions whose primary job is this cannot do," said Huter.
He believes that it is very important that methodology does not deal with names, but with working methods.
Nikolić said that it will be necessary to contact the Ministry of Justice again, which should issue a permit to engage in certain activities, or not to engage in them.
"My suggestion is that, as part of the point regarding methodology, we try to define the methodology for addressing the Ministry. It is known that the deadlines are such that a parliamentary investigation lasts 90 days... Let's define whether we sit once or twice a week...".
GP URA MP Ana Novaković Đurović called for a statement on the committee's rules of procedure, for order to be respected so that the methodology could be determined and people could be invited to sessions.
Committee member Milan Knežević said that Mandić had done everything that the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Montenegro entailed and that a more detailed review of the letter from the Ministry of Justice should be conducted, and that it would be appropriate to now state their position on the Rules of Procedure, and then discuss Mandić's proposals under the second item.
Europe Now Movement MP Miodrag Laković believes that it would be too ambitious to think that the committee will shed light on the murder, collect evidence, and that the prosecution or court will make decisions based on the committee's work...
"But I believe that the work of this committee is important in a phenomenological sense, in terms of whether there was a connection between state bodies, politics and crime to commit or cover up certain criminal acts or obstruct investigations of criminal acts. I think that through the work of this committee, we can bring this phenomenon closer to the public or explain it. It is particularly important that no government ever again dares to instrumentalize state bodies in terms of committing criminal acts for the sake of political interest or some other lucrative interest."
Laković agrees that when making decisions, the topic was determined a little tendentiously and that it could be said "for cases where there is a suspicion that there is a connection with the current politics of the time."
Within the second item on the agenda, which is the consideration of initiatives on specific topics for hearings, Mandić repeated the proposal that the committee address the issues of murders whose perpetrators are unknown after decades, and attacks on journalists and free intellectuals.
Laković requested an explanation from Mandić regarding the proposal for an investigation into the murder of Pavle Bulatović, which occurred on the territory of Serbia, since the Law on Parliamentary Investigation states that the committee collects information and data related to the work of state bodies.
"Regardless of the fact that it was a joint state at the time, the authorities had territorial jurisdiction. We are all interested in hearing if there is any information, I am just interested in an explanation of which state authorities we would ask to comment, given that they were not territorially and actually competent," explained Laković.
Mandić said that at the time of Bulatović's murder, there was a common state, and that he was the representative of Montenegro in the Federal Government, and that his murder was being investigated by the Investigative Committee of the Federal Assembly...
"At this moment, it is important that the Parliament deals with this murder and we can request from the competent authorities in Serbia complete documentation on the work of the Inquiry Committee in the Federal Parliament, from the Military Intelligence Service, from their police, which collected data even after the separation of the state...", said the Speaker of the Parliament.
He thinks that the committee can get this information, and that if they don't get a response "that would be some kind of response too."
Laković said that he was not in favor of using the data from the Inquiry Committee headed by Vojislav Šešelj in this parliament.
"I am in favor of using data derived from the work of state bodies."
Mandić responded that the work of the entire committee cannot be attributed to the president, and that the then Inquiry Committee did a great job, according to the NSD committee member Želidrag Nikčević.
"Many people from the government and the opposition participated... I'm not saying that we should eliminate the work of the Inquiry Committee because of one political approach. All of that is publicly available."
Knežević said that he supports Mandić's initiative, and that regarding the murder of Pavle Bulatović, there is operational information, knowledge and indications that his murder was organized and logistically covered by the National Security Agency and the Seventh Directorate.
"We believe it is very important that this murder be investigated, regardless of whether he was killed in Belgrade or Podgorica..."
SNP MP Bojan Božović believes that the murder of Bulatović should also be discussed,
"We are neither in the role of the judiciary nor the prosecution, but it is important that there is a will within the parliament to shed additional light on a dark period in the history of Montenegro," said Božović.
Democratic MP Momčilo Leković said that for him the work of this committee is a historic task and that a narrative should not be created that this committee will be unsuccessful.
"For me, it would be a success if we could shed light on at least one of these tragic cases in a way that would contribute to shedding light," said Leković.
Nikolić: Discuss the assassination attempt on Drašković, the arrest of the group led by Kovačević...
Nikolić said that it would be desirable for the committee to discuss the attempted assassination of Vuk Drašković in Budva, and the role of Serbian intelligence services in that assassination attempt.
It would also make sense to discuss the circumstances under which a group of people led by Rambo Kovačević arrived ahead of the 1997 presidential elections and were arrested at the Hotel Crna Gora due to indications that an attack on presidential candidate Milo Đukanović might be being prepared.
"In any case, since you suggested using information from Serbia, I could hardly support that proposal because there is a high degree of interest and involvement of structures from Serbia, from the 1990s to the present...", said Nikolić.
Bonus video:
