Successors Of The Sheriff Of Nottingham

"Even a brief glance at the document signed by Minister Pejakovic is enough to show that the Montenegrin police have violated the Constitution and the law,'' said Stefan Lilic, a law professor at the University of Belgrade.

Article 23 of the Federal Constitution says that one can be detained only in cases as stipulated by the law--meaning in cases of involvement in criminal acts. In this case, it is clear that neither Titoric nor the other arrested persons were involved in a criminal act, unless you regard it a "sin'' that someone is born a Muslim. Fortunately, such a law doesn't exist here. The Montenegrin police cannot justify these arrests as extradition or assistance to another state, because there is no involvement in a criminal act.

"This is a relentless manhunt in which people are being exchanged in ethnic cleansing. In a situation like this one, human beings are reduced to a means of payment. The question is whether the Montenegrin police department is a service of the Serb Republic in BH and whether Montenegro is engaged in hunting down persons from another state... The state is violating its own constitution in order to do another state a favour, and at the same time ignoring Interpol's warrants for war criminals. This attitude is not only contrary to the Constitution and basic human rights, but is also inhuman,'' said Professor Lilic.

Minister Pejakovic's statement that the Montenegrin police had arrested "slaves of another faith'' for exchange purposes, can hardly be justified as a slip of the tongue, even less as a trick played on Pavle Bulatovic who was the Interior Minister at the time of Titoric's arrest. But Pejakovic's calmness might be seen as an attempt at legalizing anarchy and proclaiming manhunts a routine police procedure. If so, the Titoric affair could be repeated in various forms.

Who is Alemko Titoric?

Alemko Titoric (30) is an electronics engineer. He completed his secondary education in Sarajevo, as the best student in his class. Alemko was on the Sarajevo University ski, tennis and basket ball teams, and as such took part in many competitions.

After graduating, he worked as an engineer with the MICRO3 computer firm, which had branches in Belgrade, Vienna and Prague.

Alemko is married to Danijela Stupar, a law student, still trapped in Bosnia.

This is how Alemko was described by his father Seval, mother Fikreta and sister Jasenkanow refugees in the United States.