No one has yet been held accountable for the violent change of government in Budva three years ago, followed by tear gas, batons and beatings and police cordons in front of the Municipal Assembly, and the former comrades-in-arms are now practically at opposite political poles.
It all started on June 17, when at 8 o'clock in the morning the administrative inspectors of the Ministry of Public Administration, which was then managed by Budvanka Suzana Pribilović (DPS), with strong police forces, entered the municipality building.
The police previously detained all the local officials who were standing at the entrance, demanding to be shown the paper on the basis of which police assistance was requested.
Administrative inspectors were sent to the metropolis of tourism to legitimize the decisions of the session held six days earlier in the conference hall of the tourist resort "Slovenska plaža", when the councilors of DPS, SD and Crnogorska, who were given the majority by an independent councilor Stevan Džaković, dismissed the presidents of the Municipality and the Assembly, Marko Tsarević (DF) and Krsto Radović (Democrats).
Scenes of pushing at the entrance to the municipal building, police forces bringing in administrative inspectors, arrests of Tsarević, Radović, the then city manager Milo Božović, Secretary for Investments Mladena Mikielja, toured the region.
Unfortunate events and the coup were a kind of trigger for three months of protests by citizens and representatives of political parties, which then defeated the coalition gathered around the DPS in the August 2020 elections.
However, even the newly formed government did not manage to assemble for two years, so those who were in agreement during the summer of 2020, above all the DF and the Democrats, became political enemies, and everything culminated in new elections in 2022.
Even today, the political situation is not better, the arrest of Mayor Milo Božović again caused a political earthquake in Budva...
Abuse of institutions
President of the Municipal Assembly Nikola Jovanovic in an interview with "Vijesti" he says that the misuse of state institutions for political purposes, first of all the Police Directorate and the Administrative Inspection of the Ministry of Public Administration, best demonstrated the degree of capture of the state by one party - DPS.
"In those days, we had an unprecedented use of force by members of the security services and security companies who carried out a violent change of government on behalf of those who, through political corruption and violence, tried to change the electoral will and install a new government. The metropolis of tourism in those days was under tear gas and shock bombs used against the citizens of Budva, who were protesting against the illegal actions of the state authorities and who did not agree to the violent change of the electoral will. On that occasion, in a completely illegal manner, several local officials, employees of the local government and a large number of citizens were deprived of their freedom, and later misdemeanor and court proceedings were initiated against all of us. This was an unprecedented example in Montenegro, and beyond, that the police and parapolice forces, by abusing their official powers, replaced the legitimate and legal government and established a majority based on the change of electoral will and political corruption. I will remind you that the entire action was directed by the then prime minister Dusko Markovic who said that the state would solve the events in Budva in 15 minutes, which was followed by the action of the police forces under the operative leadership of the then assistant police directors Duška Koprivica i Nikola Janjušević, as well as the head of the security department Slobodan Kovačević. The Special Anti-Terrorist Unit was also involved in the police action, as well as other special units, Jovanović points out.
That the entire action of the police was illegal, as he points out, is best confirmed by the legally concluded court case that was initiated against the then mayor Marko Carević, at that time the manager of the municipality Milo Božović, him and several other officials. Jovanović says that they won the dispute by proving that the intervention of the police was unnecessary and illegal, because they allowed the officers of the Administrative Inspection to enter the municipal building.
"More than 50 persons were unlawfully deprived of their freedom, and later more than 300 misdemeanor court proceedings were initiated against the citizens of Budva. Our political decision in the DF was to resist the lawlessness and violence that was happening in Budva and to once and for all stand in the way of political corruption and the destruction of the electoral will of the citizens... We knew that it was our moral and political responsibility to show determination and uncompromising perseverance, in order to achieve the removal of the then government for countless reasons. In this sense, Budva was the initial capsule of historic democratic changes, because in the elections on August 30, we replaced the decades-long government of the DPS and Milo Đukanović. These changes followed 75 days of persistent protests in front of the municipal building by us as local officials, employees of the administration and a large number of citizens of Budva, and I believe that this is the longest protest in Montenegro. Every day we tried to enter the municipality building and return to our workplaces, but the unidentified security, which was made up of people with dubious biographies, violently prevented us with the help of the police".
At that time, as he said, the police administration kept the building under siege in three shifts and did not allow anyone except officials and members of the DPS to enter.
"Three years after these events, we regret to state that the organizers and participants of all illegal actions have not been prosecuted for criminal acts that were committed to the detriment of the Municipality of Budva, its property, citizens and local officials. The extent to which the state authorities were abused is also shown by the fact that members of the SAJ carried out police torture against members of the Protection and Rescue Service of the Municipality of Budva and that on that occasion officials were arrested and accused of organizing a criminal group whose aim was to attack state authorities. and blockade of the city. It is enough to recall the scenes where members of the Budva OB burst into the empty municipal building with gas masks and full equipment and ransacked the offices and broke all the doors on them, because they thought that at that moment we were in the municipal building in order to make arrests".
Promotions instead of the dock
Although August 30, 2020, as he said, brought major political changes - victory in the local and parliamentary elections, after the formation of the government, a large number of the culprits of these events, instead of ending up on the dock, continued their involvement in state bodies, and part even improved, especially in the security department.
"To this day, absolutely no one has been held accountable for the brutal actions in Budva, or even for throwing tear gas in the sports center at children who were training at that moment and who experienced trauma from tear gas and shock bombs. Our criminal charges remained buried deep in the drawers of individuals from the state administration system, and the new government led by 'experts' remained immune to the systemic abuse of state institutions for political purposes. If DF had been entrusted with the management of departments in the executive branch, this would certainly not have happened, but each individual would have been responsible for breaking the law. The 'heroes of spring' have so far escaped the court of justice because the institutions of the system have not yet been established in such a way that they work exclusively on the basis of the law and the constitution. The reason for this is that those individuals who installed the DPS system and who still serve it are located, work and decide in them. The time ahead is a good opportunity to change that..."
Radović: No one answered because the decisions of the SO were not implemented
The leader of the Budva Democrats, Krsto Radović, head of the parliament at the time of turbulent political events, blames the executive power for the fact that no one was held accountable, because it did not implement the decisions of the Budva Assembly.
The executive branch was headed by Tsarević after the August elections.
"I've asked myself many times what we've been through, whether some things and processes really had to happen... and I have to admit that looking today from this distance in time, I think we had to go through everything, including what unfortunately happened in Budva . This is exactly the straw that broke the camel's back and completely exposed the thirty-year-old regime and all that absolutism and dictatorship bring. Unfortunately, no one was personally responsible for all these ugly events in Budva, but that responsibility is also partially borne by the people who were in executive positions at the time, because they did not process anything from the conclusion of the SO of Budva, which was made by the parliamentary commission, and which the councilors adopted by a majority of votes. It is very possible that, even if it had been prosecuted, it would have ended up in some table, given that almost only parts of our institutions have been released".
Radović assessed that he is afraid that even after three years, we have not made much progress, primarily because of those who abused the trust of the citizens of Budva, because they did not want to change the system, but only people, by exercising power.
"And that's why Budva continues to suffer today, due to arrogance and out-of-system behavior. We must remind ourselves how individuals used their positions to extort municipal companies, based on the same DPS matrix.... So everything that is happening today in our city does not surprise me at all, and we will certainly have something to say about it in the period to come. But, when I look at everything again, I'm sure that a lot of things have changed for the better since August 30, 2020, and I think primarily that citizens feel more free. I sincerely want to believe that especially the citizens of Budva today see some things much more clearly... I hope that in the future and after solving the problems in the judiciary, someone will be responsible for all the events in Budva".
DF and the Democrats are responsible for the lack of a judicial epilogue
Vice-president of the Budva board and member of the presidency of GP URA Milijana Vukotić Jelušić states that the events of June 17, 2020 were possible thanks to the weakness of the system, the judicial and executive authorities.
"The use of coercive force, the absence of administrative supervision, the (mis)use of the inspection supervision mechanism for the procedure of checking the expediency and legality of the work of local self-government bodies testify to this. In a certain way, this accelerated the decline of DPS and the breakdown of the system as we knew it until then. However, even the next political majority did not profit because of this, because the inability to serve the public and not the private interest came to be paid for. Thus, the will of the citizens was once again betrayed by the establishment of a dysfunctional government, which led to forced administration in Budva".
She assessed that the case did not receive a judicial epilogue because at that time neither the Democrats nor the DF wanted to file lawsuits against the decisions of the newly formed majority, under the pretext that this would mean recognition of the new government.
"On the other hand, institutions trapped by a system of ties and official obedience have become an impregnable fortress in a newly changed management structure, with no experience in public administration. Thus, we never received a review of the responsibility for infamous events and a kind of state fraud".
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