A Sinking Fleet

Will 16 million dollars be found to stop the auctioning off of Montenegro's merchant fleet? The gravity of the situation is illustrated by a question put to congressmen in the pages of the ``Daily Press'': ``How much longer can the sailors survive when they have to pay 1,000 dollars for a little over 200 gallons of water and 240 dollars for the use of a boat to get to the shore?'' The author of the text on the fate of the crew of ``Bor,'' a ship belonging to the ``Prekookeanska Plovidba'' company from Bar and currently anchored in Sand Point harbor, asks: ``Why are we Americans afraid of friendship with a group of lonely people?''

The agony of the Montenegrin sailors has been recorded by world media. All these articles ask if it is illegal to help the sailors, if it is against the law for citizens to offer free services to the sailors and allow them to come ashore once or twice a week, so that they can buy what they need and telephone their families, regardless of the fact that their country must uphold the international sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro. A few months ago, at the request of the ``Milena Shipping Company'' registered in Malta, the UN committee for the implementation of sanctions allowed the unblocking of a part of the company's capital for the purchase of oil and drinking water necessary for the survival of the crew of ``Durmitor,'' anchored off Baltimore. Sailors sailing under various flags sometimes give their Montenegrin colleagues welcome aid, but all this is not enough for survival, for the simple reason that ships ``eat themselves.''

``Just the taxes for ships anchored in other ports, the insurance and maintenance of 19 ships belonging to the Kotorbased company ``Jugooceanija,'' require 45,000 dollars daily,'' said Branko Perisic, one of the company's directors. The shipping company ``Prekookeanska Plovidba'' from Bar is in the same situation, its ships are scattered all over the world, and Montenegro cannot help them. All reserves have been exhausted in maintaining the blocked ships since September 1992, when sanctions affecting shipping went into effect. Attempts at avoiding this were unsuccessful, so that of 38 ships belonging to the above mentioned companies, only three are in domestic waters. The ship ``Sutjeska'' tried to reach the Montenegrin coast but was intercepted by war ships controlling the Montenegrin coastline which escorted it to the Italian port of Brindisi.

If the losses and costs of maintenance are added up, Montenegrin companies have lost 216 million dollars since the start of the blockade. This is an enormous loss for Montenegro, since the two companies netted 80 million dollars annually before the blockade (this sum is enough to feed the population of Montenegro for two years). The fate of the two companies' property, valued at 580 million dollars, i.e. 14% of Montenegro's overall property, is also blocked. Could all this have been avoided, and what should be done to salvage what can still be saved?

The salvaging of the fleet started at the time when war broke out in the former Yugoslavia. Companies were founded throughout the world and the ships sailed under the flags of other countries. All this resulted in a storm of protests by the ``patriots on duty'' in the Montenegrin Assembly, who saw this as an attempt at seceding from Yugoslavia. ``Jugooceanija'' director Nikola Samardzic who was Montenegrin Foreign Minister at the time, was openly criticized of separatist ambitions by proSerbian parties. He was accused of being ``ashamed of sailing under the Yugoslav flag'' and that this was the reason why the ships were sailing under different flags. Thanks to this move, Montenegrin ships continued sailing until sanctions were tightened (Resolution 820). ``Had there been any justice, sanctions wouldn't have affected those ships,'' said Montenegrin Minister of Shipping and Traffic Jusuf Kalomperovic.

All reserves for servicing the fleet have been exhausted. Aid totalling 7 million dollars and given by former Yugoslav PM Milan Panic's government has also melted away, while the Montenegrin shipping companies' foreign accounts have been frozen. The companies are burdened with foreign credits used for the purchase of the ships, and this only serves to increase the fear of creditors who will seek payment through the courts. In that case there will be no mercy, because if the debt claims and various taxes pass a third of the ship's value, then the ship, whose average value stands at about 14 million dollars, will be auctioned off, and sold for next to nothing. So far three ships have been sold this way. Fears that the other ships might meet with this fate are very real, since their value decreases from day to day. Kalomperovic puts his hopes in the federal government and the National Bank of Yugoslavia which have been sent demands for a loan of 16 million dollars which would ensure that all the ships were saved. Kalomperovic says that so far the federal organs have not been in a position to do more, but he hopes that they will do as much as they can. On the other hand, company representatives are angry with the federal government, since, as Branko Perisic said, ``Jugooceanija'' received 25 billion dinars from the federal government two months ago, the same amount as the Yugoslav Air Company JAT, even though all of its planes are in the country.

The general directors of ``Jugooceanija'' and ``Prekookeanska Plovidba'' Nikola Samardzic and Luka Djakovic respectively, do not know how to save their ships and take care of their sailors at the same time. There is also the problem of how to pay the sailors on land and secure all that is necessary for the crews on the ships. The sailors on the other hand, are leaving the ships anchored in the ports and seeking employment with other shipping companies. This is no great problem considering the reputation enjoyed by Montenegrin sailors worldwide.

Many measures are being taken to save Montenegro's merchant fleet, but to quote Kalomperovic: ``They can't be talked about.'' Will the result of all these activities be the anchoring of all the ships in a Chinese port? For the time being, there is just bitterness over the fate of the ships.