We Are Not Removing Criminals

The public has exploited the thesis of organized crime for several years now. The Montenegrin police have simultaneously been rocked by several serious clashes, resulting in sacking, but the public was not told what was happening behind the scene.

Too many questions have been left unanswered and VREME sought the answers from Filip Vujanovic, Montenegrin Minister of the Interior. Vujanovic replied to the questions in writing, though failing to answer three questions - on cigarette and fuel smuggling, the consequences such trafficking had during the economic blockade, and the question about the recent events in Plav (police vs. fans, e.g.). "Seems to me there is nothing new to say about these subjects," Vujanovic told VREME.

Can the conclusion that there is organized crime be drawn on the basis of the past developments?

They definitely show that there is no organized crime in Montenegro. Organized crime, according to its criminological definition, implies both the active and passive links with state bodies, above all, with the police and judicature, with whose help such crime is committed. There is definitely no doubt we do not have organized crime, because it is not linked or supported by the state bodies. Montenegro’s state policy is firmly committed to continuously combatting all sorts of crime and it is absurd to speak of any of them being supported by the state.

How do you comment about the increasingly frequent showdowns between criminals?

Several incidents of showdowns between criminals have recently been registered in Montenegro. Investigations of these incidents showed that they were most often motivated by quarrels, intolerance or revenge, as well as unpaid debts.

Montenegrin criminals are often killed in Belgrade and Italy, and most of their murderers are never found. How do you explain that?

It’s true that people from our republic the police knew were criminals had been killed in Belgrade and Italy. It is also a fact that a considerable number of the perpetrators of these crimes have not been identified. The Montenegrin Interior Ministry has always expressed its readiness to provide the necessary help in shedding light on these crimes and concrete contribution to investigations of certain cases. We will continue doing so in the future as well.

Some media had openly written that certain Interior Ministry departments have used criminals to do their job for them, and that these criminals were later removed by those departments. The police, however, have not reacted to such reports.

I most responsibly claim that this ministry has not removed, as you say, any criminal, because it never had the need to. The state has its own instruments (the police, the prosecution, the court and jails) to punish criminals and protect society from them. I would never let a department physically liquidate someone to protect itself or the society. You know, if we were to react to all such insinuations, where would it lead? It is up to our Ministry to consciously and responsibly carry out its duties; the fact that these kinds of duties imply an adequate degree of concealment and fire up the imagination, even sensationalism, is an altogether different question. It has always been that way.

When you took over the Ministry, you said you would harshly punish all policemen exceeding their authority. Meanwhile, you let two of them go back to their jobs although criminal proceedings are being conducted against them...

I have been fully consistent in punishing abuses and all employees who abused means of force have been sacked, as have the ones who exceeded their authority in using means of force, except in cases when authority was exceeded under extremely mitigating circumstances, when the perpetrators were punished more mildly. Such an attitude has resulted in the maximum drop in abuse, and I can freely say that their number has been symbolic for quite some time now.

Regarding such a stand on the abuse of means of force, three officers and two inspectors in the Podgorica police station were sacked. Over a year later, the two inspectors got their jobs back. By respecting their request that they be employed again, the Ministry assessed a positive stand should be taken on them because a considerable period of time has elapsed since they were ousted, because they found themselves in a difficult financial situation, because their previous work had been very good and the department needed inspectors with such extensive experience in the field. Finally, I hope you will agree with me that people who have made mistakes should be given a chance to prove that the punishment had served its purpose.

Are you satisfied with your professional cooperation with the Serbian Ministry of the Interior?

I am satisfied with my cooperation with the Serbian Interior Ministry. In all concrete activities in which the two ministries need to cooperate or jointly implement those activities. Our extremely fair relationship aimed at combatting crime which is inseparable, which recognizes no borders, the borders of our two Republics most definitely, and which is our permanent problem, together with the full respect of our positions of state bodies of two federal units of a federal state, but also a common federal state.

More Smuggling, Less Killing

A high rise in crime was recorded in the 1991-94 period in Montenegro as the consequence of a number of circumstances (the war, high unemployment, broken links with Interpol). However, that trend dropped in 1994 when 7,478 crimes were recorded which is 22% lower than the 9,706 crimes recorded in 1993. In 1995, 8,908 crimes were recorded, an increase of 19.12%. The rise was conditioned by the rise in economic crimes, i.e. illegal trade. But the worst crimes (murders, serious bodily harm, extortion) are dropping constantly. In 1995, 27 murders were registered compared to 35 in 1994. In 1992, 32 murders were registered.

In the first five months of 1996, compared to the same period of 1995, a drop in crime rates was recorded. Eight murders were registered in that period (18 in 1995) and 36 attempted murders (37 in 1995).

The police are currently engaged in solving those crimes.

Of the 131 murders registered since early 1992, just five cases have not been solved but investigations into them are being pursued.

Montenegrin independent newsagency Montena-faks reported Thursday that Interpol representatives arrived in Montenegro on Tuesday to investigate violations of the economic embargo - cigarette and fuel trafficking, said to be orchestrated by Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic. The Federal Government approved the Interpol reps’ stay in