Despite the fires raging in Montenegro since March 19, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which could not use aircraft to extinguish them, estimated that there was no need to seek help from the countries of the region, the European Union or NATO.
This is how the department headed by the minister responded to Vijesti Sergej Sekulovic, to questions sent on March 29, while the fire was still consuming houses in the Kolasin villages.
"We did not send a request for help because there was no need to send a request of this type. In order for us to send a request for assistance in extinguishing fires to the countries of the region, the members of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and NATO, certain preconditions for this need to be met (large burned area, endangerment of people and residential and commercial buildings, maximum engagement of all available human and material resources resources in our country, the need to carry out evacuation, i.e. moving people from threatened areas to some other areas that are not threatened, etc.), explained the MUP.
Questions about whether they sent a request to the Government of Croatia and/or any other country, possibly to NATO, to provide humanitarian aid to Montenegro, or whether they asked them for help in putting out fires throughout the country, were sent to the MUP on the tenth day of the fire.
Even then, the fire destroyed large areas under the forest, pastures, low vegetation and swallowed several uninhabited or occasionally inhabited rural houses.
Due to a failure to secure the air fleet, the Directorate for Emergency Situations could not carry out an aerial extinguishing operation. In most villages, even in forest areas, the only help to firefighters was citizens.
In some locations, the fires were extinguished for three days using helicopters of the Army of Montenegro.
The MUP did not explain their assessment that during March "there was no need to send a request" for help, even though several houses were already destroyed in those days, as well as large areas under the forest, and their planes were grounded.
Montenegro previously used the help of other countries - in 2017, the fire in the area of Boka was extinguished by the Croatian Canadians, the Ukrainian ANTONOV-32P, the Swiss transport helicopter type "AS-332 super puma"... At that time, the BEL 212 MUP helicopter also took part in the action. of Montenegro.
Aircraft not insured
At the beginning of April, the MUP told Vijesti that last year they did not have enough funds in the budget to secure aircraft, which is why they could not use them to extinguish recent, large fires.
They also claim that they asked the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare for money in the middle of last year, but also that the Administration for Cadastre and State Property, at the end of last year, after approving additional funds, informed them that they could not implement public procurement procedures due to administrative and legal regulations due to the entry into the new budget year.
From the institution he heads Koča Đurišić, for days they do not answer the questions of the News regarding the insurance of the state air fleet, but also whether they feel responsible for the inability of the Directorate for Emergency Situations to "raise" the planes and participate in firefighting, which caused enormous damage. The insurance sector unofficially informed the News that the Administration for Cadastre and State Property is responsible for the fact that the planes were grounded, because they allegedly entrusted the job of insuring all state property to a brokerage house.
Đurišić did not respond to those accusations, and Sekulović's department shifted the responsibility to the MFSS and the Government.
They also said that during 2022, after the budget and public procurement plan were adopted, the Administration for Cadastre and State Property initiated the procedure for the procurement of aircraft insurance, the estimated value of which is 490.000 euros.
However, they estimated that the funds provided by the MUP this year will again not be sufficient to conclude the contract.
At the session held on March 31, 2022, the government reached a conclusion on the redirection of additional funds for the needs of the MUP's helicopter unit.
At the end of March, in the show "Reflektor" on TV Vijesti, the director of the Directorate for Emergency Situations of the MUP Miodrag Bešović he said that they have three helicopters that are relatively old and three airplanes, one of which is working, and two of which are damaged.
MVP: They didn't ask us for anything
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied to Vijesti that the MUP did not ask them to send a request for humanitarian aid in order to suppress fires in Montenegro.
They also explained that, according to the procedure, that Government department (MUP) asks for help from international partners.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not receive a request from the Ministry of Internal Affairs for humanitarian assistance in order to suppress fires in Montenegro. We inform you that the MUP - Directorate for Protection and Rescue is the contact point for cooperation and coordination of international aid within the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (Emergency Response Coordination Center - ERCC) and the NATO Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center - EADRCC. Therefore, the Ministry of Internal Affairs directs requests for help through the mentioned mechanisms", said the department headed by Đorđe Radulović.
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