No one in the leadership and command chain of the Army of Montenegro, nor in the competent services of the Ministry of Defense (MoD) will bear responsibility for the great damage that the country suffered as a result of the sinking of two decommissioned military ships at the beginning of last month in Boka Kotorska, nor will the MoD investigate the circumstances under which that happened.
This results from the answers that "Vijesti" received from the department whose work is coordinated by the Minister of Internal Affairs Filip Adzic (URA) to a set of questions related to the sinking of the minelaying landing ship and water carrier on February 7.
"The Ministry of Defense did not form a commission considering that this incident is not considered an extraordinary event, in accordance with the provisions of the Service Rules, because the ship was not entered in the fleet list, and therefore was not under the financial responsibility of the Navy. Namely, the ship was sold to the company "Intertrade ", which previously paid an advance and was supposed to turn it into secondary raw materials. Any proceedings against a person serving in the Army to determine responsibility for the sinking of a vessel that is not under the material responsibility of the Army would be contrary to the Law on the Army and the Rules of Service in the Army." it is stated in the answer to "News" from the Ministry of Defense.
This is not the practice in the armies of a large number of developed countries, where weapons, equipment and means of military equipment that have been withdrawn from operational use remain under the supervision and care of special army units until they are taken over by buyers, or until they are physically destroyed into scrap metal. or otherwise.
Regardless of the fact that they have been spent, such funds, until sold or destroyed, remain the property of the state and it is known who is responsible for them at all times.
On February 7, around ten o'clock, the mini-layer overturned on its right side and sank on the mooring at the location between the military facility Pristan and Rakita, on the northwestern coast of the Luštica peninsula in Boka Kotorska. Then an old military water tanker was wrecked and also scrapped, the hull of which was also awash, so this ship also rested on the seabed in the shallows where it was tied up with its bow part.
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By the way, we are talking about two ships that have been out of operational use in the Croatian Navy for about fifteen years, and which the MoD did not sell or cut into scrap metal during all that time, but for years spent the material and personnel resources of the Croatian Navy for them.
The Minipolagač was built in 1988 in Split, it was one of the youngest and most modern ships of the former JRM, and Montenegro certainly had no need for a vessel of such purpose and characteristics since 2006, when it restored its independence and took full control of the Navy.
The Ministry of Defense told "Vijesta" that since 2007, when they were withdrawn from operational use, those two ships have been unsuccessfully offered for sale several times because "the buyers eventually gave up".
"A lot of time was spent trying to solve the issue of surplus ships, due to the complexity of the sale procedure, which requires a lot of time for the assets to be subject to sale again and renewed tender procedures. The sinking of these ships that would serve as tourist attractions during diving was also considered. but even those proposals were abandoned when the implementation of that project started, because the interested parties would give up. Due to the condition they are in, these ships can only be turned into secondary raw materials. In the end, the ships were sold and it was expected that they would be scrapped, precisely on those days when the incident and the sinking took place," the Ministry of Defense explains, noting that those vessels do not legally have the status of warships because they have been decommissioned and decommissioned.
They claim that the MVCG, in accordance with its regular tasks, "and in accordance with the elaborations for the performance of the service, undertook all actions within its jurisdiction, noting that the safety of professional soldiers, especially in such weather conditions, is the primary task".
According to the interpretation of the Ministry of Defense, the storm that hit Boka on February 7 was of such a strong intensity that the MVCG, despite the increased engagement of personnel in response to the announced storm, was allegedly unable to do anything to prevent the sinking of the ships.
"It was not possible to use divers due to endangering their safety, and the service authorities did everything in their power and capabilities to keep the DBM-241 and PV-17 ships on the surface of the water. All tanks were completely emptied. In the past period all measures and actions were taken to remove dangerous substances from the ship (fuel, lubricant, oily water) in order to prevent sea pollution in the event of the sinking of these ships, which were given to the Navy for safekeeping until their status is resolved. The Navy did everything which was within its power, despite the fact that its primary task is not to guard ships that were sold as secondary raw material, and which are not part of the Navy," claim the MoD.
The Navy does not even include the former military warehouse in Morinje, but its members guard it 24 hours a day, securing the memorial plaque that was illegally placed there last year in memory of the detainees of the former JNA Collection Center in Morinje for prisoners from the Dubrovnik battlefield in 1991.
The warehouse in Morinje has long since ceased to be an active military facility, so it is not under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense, but rather the Ministry of Finance, which disposes of all state property, but despite this, the MVCG still keeps it constantly guarded for political reasons.
At the same time, the MVCG was not able to save the two decommissioned warships on Rakita, although they are public property worth at least as much as secondary raw material, costing about 900 tons of steel from which they were made.
In this case, the state will also suffer additional damage because it will pay for the removal of sunken ships. Thus, the tugboats of the company "Boka Pilot & Tug Services" from Bijela already in the past few days, after the teams of MVCG and firefighters who came to its aid, restored the buoyancy of the tanker by pumping out the water that had penetrated through the rotten deck, towed that ship with connection near Rakit and unfortunately stranded him near the military facility Pristan on Luštica.
Here, the tanker will be cut into scrap metal and shipped in pieces to be melted down in one of the ironworks.
When, in what way and by whom, the wreckage of DBM-241 will be removed from the shallows near Rakit, "Vijesti" has not received an answer from the Ministry of Defense, but unofficially we know that the company Boka Pilot&Tug Serrvices also sent them an offer to do it.
"Vijesti" interlocutors well versed in this case claim that the DBM-241 sank on February 7 due to inattention and untimely reaction on the part of the MVCG crew from Pristan.
"In fact, the ship had unremedied water penetration into the hull for several hours. However, all that time before the ship lost stability and overturned on the mooring, adequate measures were not taken to prevent this and to save the ship, even though there were all the prerequisites for the successful rescue of the ship", said the interlocutor of "Vijesti", who himself previously participated on several occasions in emergency interventions of "patching" damage to the hull or pumping out the sea from the hull of this ship, in order to keep it afloat.
The correspondent of "Vijesti" explains that under the blows of the storm, the military ship suffered great stresses under which the corrosion-eaten hull sheets gave way, so the ship began to receive the sea and slowly sink.
If it had been noticed and intervened in time, the intrusion of water would have been overcome with pumps, but since that night, even though there was a storm, none of the members of the MVCG during the day from Pristan visited the ships moored at Rakit, DBM-241 received until the morning so much water that it plunged into the sea above the level of its big door-ramps for loading tanks on the bow and stern.
"The ship could have been saved in the morning, but when it sank to the level of the ramps, the sea penetrated much faster into the ship's interior because the ramps do not have a watertight connection with the hull. Then the effect of the so-called "free surface" was created from the large amount of water that was rolled across the entire vehicle deck that was not interrupted by bulkheads, so DBM-241 leaned on its starboard side and almost capsized before sinking on the mooring. All this could have been avoided if more care had been taken and timely intervention. However, the state is "suffered additional heavy damage because now they will have to pay for the removal and removal of the wreckage. Someone must bear responsibility for that," said the interlocutor to "Vijesti".
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