Strategic Pickles

Not even pickles can cross to Montenegro without the `passport' specially stamped by the Serbian Minister of Trade. Judging by strong reactions of truck drivers who were stopped and turned away on the border between Serbia and Montenegro, it seems that members of the Yugoslav Army in Montenegro will temporarily remain without a salad. The fate of pickles is shared by an additional 200 products, which were declared to be strategic by a special decree Radoman Bozovic, the then Serbian Prime Minister, issued in November 1991. This decree has been put into effect several times since, which resulted in long lines of trucks loaded with food on the Serbian-Montenegrin border. Not one truck can cross into Montenegro, since financial police have been ordered not to allow crossing to the drivers who have not received the blessing of the Serbian Trade Minister.

The Government of Montenegro has not issued a reciprocal decree, even though a free flow of some strategic products (salt, aluminium, coal) to Serbia has been stopped. Neither the Serbian nor the Montenegrin Government has offered any explanation to the public. Some officials have claimed that Serbia has not imposed embargo on Montenegro, but it is generally believed that there is trade war underway. Meanwhile, all three Governments, Serbian, Montenegrin and even Federal, remain silent, and provision of Montenegrins with basic foodstuffs is becoming increasingly chaotic. The citizens waiting in ever longer queues for bread, milk, cigarettes and meat wonder whether the reason for activating the decree was causing more dissatisfaction. There is less and less food in the shops, and soon there won't be any to be found unless some food is secured from the state stockpiles. Dairy plants have no raw materials and bakers are baking last loaves of bread, waiting for flour from Serbia which they had already paid for. The Montenegrin Government keeps quiet, just like the media which focus on the ``unjust blockade'' imposed by Macedonia. The Government's silence is taken as approval of accusations which arrived from some centers of power in Serbia. Ivica Dacic, the Spokesman of the Serbian Socialist Party (SPS), asserted that this had nothing to do with blockade and that Serbia only wants to protect its balances. Others claimed that Montenegro re-exports food to Albania and other countries through the port of Bar. The Serbian Radical Party in Montenegro renowned for persistently defending the moves of the Belgrade regime insisted on this. At the press conference, the party's spokesman Acim Visnjic wondered, ``Is Serbia taking flour, cooking oil and sugar from Montenegro or is it the smugglers buying them in Serbia and selling in Albania and Croatia?'' The fact is that both governments are trying to avoid having to settle the dispute publicly, primarily because they would have a lot to say each other which could, on the other hand, significantly weaken their positions. Radoje Kontic, the Federal Prime Minister, hasn't said anything, even though he had promised a free flow of goods in the truncated Yugoslavia.

Until then, the Serbian Minister of Trade will continue to sign special permission for goods for Montenegro, which is a southern republic in the federation. It follows that it directly depends on the time Serbian Minister of Trade has at his disposal how long one will have to wait for a permission. Large quantities of perishable goods had to be returned to Serbia due to unannounced super-control although they had been paid for and dont't disrupt the balance of goods allotted to Montenegro. Montenegro had received a large quantities of goods for the tourist season, and 90 per cent of guests were from Serbia. Montenegrins had soon begun to complain that their losses would be astronomic because of hyperinflation.

In August Mihailo Vlahovic, the manager of `Primorka' from Bar, complained that flour had not been delivered to them from Serbia. The Montenegrin Government had to solve the problem by providing flour from its stockpiles. Vojin Djukanovic, the President of the Montenegrin Chamber of Commerce who is also the General Manager of the ironworks in Niksic, complained that his company's trucks loaded with flour for the workers had been stopped although they had paid for it in iron. Their trucks loaded with other goods were also stopped, but the Serbian Minister of Trade gave in to the energetic action. Trucks are allowed to go to Niksic, but not those which would take milk to either Niksic and Podgorica, so that the citizens have to start queuing at five o'clock in the morning.

There were five tank trucks of the `Jugopetrol' company from Kotor full with petrol stopped on the border. An agreement was made with oil refineries in Serbia that oil obtained from Montenegro be returned as petrol.

While keeping quiet, the Montenegrin Government seems to be preparing a vociferous response. The citizens who had been told before the referendum on the joint state of Serbia and Montenegro that they could not survive without Serbia have realized that they had been deceived. They say the situation is difficult enough to them as it is, and it should not be made more difficult with senseless moves. Vojin Djukanovic wondered why the federal state and police did not intervene if there is smuggling, and some enterpreneurs added that it is well known who controls the customs and the Federal Government. Traders waited for good news from Montenegrin Trade Minister Dusko Lalicevic and Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, but all in vain as nothing was agreed in Belgrade. Therefore, it is most probable that coal will not be shipped to Serbia from Pljevlja, that salt from Ulcinj will end up in the Montenegrin stockpiles and shops, who knows what will happen to aluminum and what will be on the list of Montenegrin strategic products. One resigned official in the Montenegrin Government stated that it is quite certain that in the future everything will be according to the principle, love for love cheese for money, and that everybody will take care what goods and resources will be re-exported and who will put pressure on whom and how. He added that both the moment and the people were wrongly chosen. ``This is not the end, only the beginning of new deals, which will be conducted with no naivet this time,'' he said, asking to remain anonymous. Until then, the Army will have to find another salad.