Persona Non Grata

The Montenegrin Interior Ministry issued an announcement that ``Vojislav Seselj (the leader of the Serbian Radical Party---SRS) was thrown out of Montenegro because of the stands he voiced at the rally staged by the Serbian Radical Party in Herzeg Novi on July 30, 1994, with which he insulted the Republic of Montenegro in a primitive and inappropriate manner, its constitutional position within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the highest-ranking officials of Montenegro and Serbia.'' However, only few consider this to be a true motive for a spectacular action of ousting the former popular political leader. The grounds on which the message that ``Seselj will not be allowed to enter Montenegro until the Federal Parliament has enabled that the criminal proceedings are instigated against him,'' is founded are even weaker.

The operation began about 4 a.m. on July 31 when the special police units surrounded the villa in Perast where Seselj and a dozen other high-ranking members of the SRS with their families had been staying since July 16. They broke into Seselj's apartment and ordered him to come with them and see Nikola Pejakovic, the head of the Montenegrin police, who had been waiting for Seselj at the police station in Kotor. Seselj wanted to see a warrant but the police did not have it. Relying on his parliamentary immunity, the leader of the SRS requested that the policemen leave the room. They defied and Seselj replied that he would not go with them and that they could only carry him there. The policemen were in trouble. They had to carry out their orders so they went to look for a stretcher. They asked the owner of the villa to provide a blanket, but as they didn't get it, the two of them took Seselj by his legs, one grabbed his belt, and another two his arms. Seselj warned them to be careful since he had recently undergone a spine operation. Sweat was dripping from them by the time they reached the car.

Police Minister Pejakovic kept Seselj for about two and a half hours, but, as the Radicals claim, he refused to answer the questions, so that Pejakovic's story was reduced to objections to the fact that Seselj attacked Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic at rallies he staged in Montenegro. The airplane that is used by the Montenegrin Government waited for Seselj and his family at the airport in Tivat and they were flown to Belgrade. Tomislav Nikolic, the deputy leader of the SRS and the head of the SRS parliamentary group in the Serbian Parliament, and his family were deported on another flight by the same plane, Acim Visnjic, the Vice-president of the Central Patriotic Board of the SRS and the head of the SRS parliamentary group in the Montenegrin Parliament, claimed. Visnjic also said that in the meantime the real drama took place in the villa in Perast which Cedomir Vasiljevic, the SRS member of the Federal Parliament, had rented from the Montenegrin Government for the whole year. The police woke up all Radicals and their families. There were many women and children among 40 of them in the villa. The children were frightened by men in black uniforms who hastened them to pack up as soon as possible. They were escorted to the border with Serbia. It is a classical deportation, Visnjic added.

Apart from the announcement of the Municipal Board of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS---the ruling party in Montenegro) which gave full support to state organs there was no official explanation for the police action.

The Liberal Alliance, the fiercest political opponent of the Serbian Radical Party, said that the Montenegrin Interior Ministry reacted in an unconstitutional and illegal way by ``actually offering protection to the certain DPS circles under the pretext of protecting the constitutional status of Montenegro, dignity of the Montenegrin nation and preventing the spreading of religious and national hatred and intolerance.'' The Liberals added that the police does not have the right to throw anyone out of Montenegro, and especially not to usurp the role of the public prosecutor and the court. ``We believe that the campaign is aimed not only against the national-chauvinist SRS, but against all those who in any way oppose the will of certain strongmen of the DPS,'' the Liberals said. They also requested the resignation of the Police Minister, i.e. they urged Milo Djukanovic to dismiss him.

So what did Seselj say at the rally in Herzeg Novi? Basically, the same things he said in Podgorica (the capital of Montenegro) several days before. The impression is that he radically dulled the edge of denying the existence of the Montenegrin state and the Montenegrin nation. Before he arrived in Perast he took a walk in Cetinje, but there were no incidents, apart from verbal exchanges. Some locals believe that the Liberals from Cetinje took pity on Seselj because of the campaign that the regimes in Belgrade and Podgorica have launched against the Radicals so that they did not want to make things worse for him. There is a rumor in Perast that the local youths provoked Seselj by singing about Montenegro but that his security did not react.

In Herzeg Novi Seselj reiterated that Milo Djukanovic is the second biggest criminal after Slobodan Milosevic. He called Djukanovic a thief and urged him to arrest him at the rally, which he did several times, amusing the crowd, and then concluded, after having waited for a short while, that Milo Djukanovic won't arrest him since he is a coward. The crowd was packed with refugees whom Seselj addressed by saying that Slobodan Milosevic is welcome to give his own villa in Dedinje (the elite part of Belgrade) to the Croats and to the Muslims, but not one inch of the Serb land, not one Serb village or a town. He repeated the already known statements, describing Slobodan Milosevic as being commanded by his wife, harshly criticizing the Communist League---the Movement for Yugoslavia (SK-PJ, the party led by Milosevic's wife Mirjana Markovic) and so forth.

``He has not insulted Montenegro or the Montenegrin nation in any way,'' Acim Visnjic claimed and added, ``We knew that something was cooking even before the rally began. Five police patrols searched us on the way from Perast to Herzeg Novi. They wanted us to hand in the weapons for which we had valid papers. They confiscated the weapons from some of our members at the entrance to Herzeg Novi. The people who wanted to come to the rally were directed towards Igalo and not Herzeg Novi. Several days before the rally a number of policemen arrived from the northern part of Montenegro. There are reports that some were brought in from Serbia as well. As if they counted on greater unrest...''

Efforts to find out who issued the orders for the deportation of the members of the Serbian Radical Party remained futile. Our source close to the police authorities said that the decision was made by Minister Pejakovic himself, but upon the suggestion of the strongmen from Belgrade. The same source claimed that well informed police circles mentioned the possibility that there were some contacts between Vojislav Seselj and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, that Seselj paid a brief visit to Trebinje and pressed for measures to be undertaken so that Milosevic's and Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic's stands regarding the peace plan of the Contact Group are undermined.

There have been many situations in the past that called for at least a warning to the Radicals and other ``patriotic'' forces. However, the authorities never reacted. On the contrary. Seselj was received by President Bulatovic and Svetozar Marovic, the then secretary general of the ruling party, on several occasions. They exchanged compliments and acknowledgments with regard to patriotism. Last year Bulatovic said that the SRS was a patriotic party, and exactly a year ago, in Herzeg Novi, Marovic said that their parties have identical or very close political stands.

The relationship between the Radicals and the ruling party in the Montenegrin Parliament was idyllic for a long time. The Radicals accepted the post of the Deputy Speaker of the Montenegrin Parliament, but refused to accept a post in the Government. The Radicals were allowed to criticize some ministers and entrepreneurs, all until the conflict between the Radicals and the Socialist Party of Serbia (SRS) began. The relationship between the Radicals and the authorities in Podgorica began to deteriorate rapidly.