The Hand of Belgrade

VREME: According to you, in what way can passions be cooled in Montenegro, and what will you, as new president, do to help in crossing over the deep political rift in the Republic?

MILO DJUKANOVIC: At this time that is the most important political question. It is evident that a deep political schism exists and that passions are flying high on the other side of the democratic line. I will try to define very precisely the gist of our political differences. I do not think that Montenegro divided across national, regional, nor party fronts in the presidential elections. I believe that we differ because the basic motto of the political block I represent is commitment to further economic reforms and to privatization, with a view to economic efficiency, to fundamental democratization of society and to complete openness of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia toward the world, without further postponing. Against this, the essential platform of the political block, which received a minority in the presidential elections, is merely to resist and go against all this. I did not get an impression that they have a political platform of their own. During his campaign, Momir Bulatovic explicitly promised, on several occasions, nationalization instead of privatization, state rule by the party and not through democracy and division of authority, and instead of openness to the world, he offered a xenophobic story about how the world hates Serbia and Montenegro. The culmination of this hypothesis was reached fifteen days ago in Niksic, when the former President of the Republic sated, without blinking, that no state benefits by membership in the IMF, that we do not need opening up of borders because that would result in greater smuggling, and finally, I quote: "that Clinton is continuing the outer wall of sanctions against FR Yugoslavia because of his unresolved relationship with the American Congress". I think that this illustrates very convincingly that the political block opposed to us stands for maintaining the existing state of affairs. I believe that a lukewarm maintaining of the existing situation, several decades of which foretell a tragic end, is something behind which only an unscrupulously power hungry person can stand, or perhaps person who is retarded and fails to see what’s at issue here.

Therefore, on the basis of this somewhat elaborate definition, it is clear why the policies of Momir Bulatovic are receiving such media, financial, political and legal support from Belgrade, and who is behind this hopelessly long airing of all possible festering sores in Yugoslav society, who convinces us and our guests from the International Community repeatedly and unfailingly how he is the unreplaceable high arbiter and master of our destinies.

I think that in Montenegro the situation can and must be resolved, and that immediately following January 15, after the centers of political power in Belgrade realize the futility of their several month long effort to maintain in political life of Montenegro and Yugoslavia a man without political personality, a man of completely anachronistic political thinking, completely unsuitable for Montenegrin desires to have someone who stands up for Montenegro and for himself representing our interests in Belgrade, and not someone who will go to Belgrade to listen to and receive orders in the name of Montenegro. Tensions will dissipate as soon as official Belgrade realizes that the citizens of Montenegro elected their kind of president, and that it must work toward a healthy partnership with Montenegro within a common state. Is it really necessary to explain about extreme media influence which state electronic media from Belgrade, above all Radio Belgrade, wield in the north of Montenegro; and they continue these days to sell snake oil there about how a battle for Yugoslavia and against separatism is being waged in Montenegro. When they finally give up on this, and when tensions dissipate, certainly conditions will come about for regaining mutual trust through political activity of state officials, primarily my political activity, and for myself to become that which I really wish to be — President of all citizens of Montenegro. It goes without saying that I will contribute to efforts for any type of revenge not to take place, for discrimination against those who think differently not to occur, and for the balance of power to get democratic backing in the political market.

You mentioned Belgrade state media. How do you assess the behavior of federal state politicians — the president, the Government and Parliament — toward the crisis in Montenegro?

From an official perspective, only the federal court officials directly interfered in the Montenegrin conflict. Of course, this politicized and non-constitutional interference is not the result of their initiative, nor the assumption of autonomy of federal court institutions. We all know that their activities are inspired by a recognizable political center in Belgrade which in this way, without explanation, states its attitude to the problem in Montenegro. Media harangues against Montenegro and myself personally, and considerable financial support of Momir Bulatovic’s political activities, and even the meandering of JUL political activists from Belgrade all across Montenegro clearly indicate considerable engagement of official, political Belgrade in our Republic, and not because, I’m certain, of Momir Bulatovic, but because of political interests of his mentors. As a Montenegrin I am very proud, and less so of my victory, than of the fact that Montenegro ignored those messages and pressures and voted for itself, for democracy and for the future.

Does all that mean that you think that Momir Bulatovic would be politically marginalized if federal government were to stop interfering into the affairs of Montenegro?

I certainly do not want to discount the political strength of Momir Bulatovic. He was at the head of the Montenegrin state for seven years, and has been president of the ruling party for longer than that. It is clear that during that time he left a certain mark and influence on a segment of the public.

Secondly, one must be realistic and realize that even without a serious socio-political analysis the political platform which Momir Bulatovic stands behind sounds lukewarm to the impoverished and exhausted people of Montenegro and Yugoslavia. We should, of course, know that what is at issue is economic reform and privatization, democracy and reintegration into the world, the kinds of issues which would not interest and attract the majority of the electorate even in far more developed countries than the existing Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. I would love to test such a political platform, let us say, in Serbia, and to see how it would inspire public confidence there. That is why I am very proud that in Montenegro today — regardless of possible differences in motives — more than half of the electorate centered around the mentioned platform. In my opinion, that is phenomenal success, keeping in mind the tragic present in which we are discussing such questions which are of the greatest importance for the future we desire. Momir Bulatovic will always be in a position to animate a certain number of people who believe that things can get worse than they already are, that we should hold onto what we have, and who do not wish to tend toward anything better, because that is risky for them.

Thirdly, a very significant role in the maintaining of the political strength of Momir Bulatovic’s faction has been the attitude of Serbia, because a majority of people are sincerely committed to life with Serbia. That’s why it was relatively easy to propagate fear on the subject that someone is trying to pass off separation of Montenegro from Yugoslavia under the guise of reform and democracy.

Fourthly, I must say, even though I know that it is a bit rough, that the menace facing Montenegro in the person and actions of Momir Bulatovic has never existed in our history, nor do I think that it will appear again. Frankly, and without political reservations, I must say that what is at issue is a political faction which is headed by a man who is a pathological liar. In the course of a single day, in several different places, according to those present, he tells several different versions of the same events. We were in a position yesterday to hear him brag in front of those people who think that our salvation is in our conflict with the world, that he supposedly courageously stuck to his guns in front of the American Envoy, Robert Gellbard, and that he told him many things. In actual fact, he fled from the meeting like a freed animal. Also, Slobodan Milosevic is also lying that the entire people is with him, and that organized meetings are attended by a hundred thousand people, while you saw yourself how many there really were. He is manipulating people in a primitive and callous way, saying that his political engagement on the street is motivated, supposedly, by defense of Yugoslavia, while Momir Bulatovic is actually protecting lost office and, at the same time, a defunct politics from which he received extreme help in all these months. In the circle closest to him there are people who are known for the fact that they totter drunk through locales in Belgrade and Podgorica — such as Restaurant Rad in Belgrade, and Mosor in Podgorica. What we are seeing is sorry company of people who, because of their defects and conflicts, are completely unable to see the long-term consequences which their policies are producing. Their formula is merely directed at manipulating the people of Montenegro, who are undoubtedly not politically educated and informed enough to be able to see everything. This does not scare me much, but only poses a serious working challenge to explain to those people the gist of the problem, and for them to drop in numbers by comparison with the last elections, so that we can be certain that the Montenegrin state, economic reforms and democracy are based on stable foundations.

As president of Montenegro, will you be ready to directly negotiate with a political adversary on resolving tensions in Montenegro?

All this time I have been investing effort for an attempt to be made at compromise. It began with the legalization of separation of a members of parliament club on the party level in Montenegrin parliament, instead of — after the decision of the Supreme Court, on the basis of which our party gained legitimacy — dismissing from the bench in parliament all those who left us. Also, I did not want to eliminate Momir Bulatovic as presidential candidate through legal clauses, but through voters’ political will. That is why I stated in parliament: go ahead, regardless of the sentence by the Constitutional Court of Montenegro, you will be candidates of your own choice, because we do not want to eliminate you at the start, but to beat you in elections. Also, we demonstrated readiness to set a date for early parliamentary elections by the end of May, even though it is not in the interest of our party. I think that through many other activities we demonstrated exceptional readiness for compromise. However, all that readiness was interpreted as weakness by the other side, so that on the basis of that, demands grew.

If their demands are to get a new chance in early parliamentary elections, a solution can be found. I said more than once, and even signed an agreement with the opposition in which early parliamentary elections by the end of May are promised. After that, even the Parliament of Montenegro decided to hold the elections from the middle of April to the end of May of this year. I am a serious man and do not wish to compromise myself, nor other people who were involved in this. There will be elections. My inauguration is on January 15, and if necessary, on January 16 I will announce the election date in May. Therefore, this is simply not at issue. We are preparing election laws in cooperation with the entire opposition, and we called on Momir Bulatovic’s faction, via a parliamentary resolution, to participate in this activity. Today we even received OEBS representatives, experts for normative regulations, who came to help us to adopt in Parliament, by the end of January, a law which is based on European standards. The Government reached a resolution and secured funds for making an electronic list of voters in Montenegro, and finally, before these elections, to get this question resolved.

However, what Momir Bulatovic is demanding is veering into irrationality. He is asking that I accept their opinion that the presidential elections were irregular and, supposedly, to allow them the presidential mandate which was given to me by the citizens of Montenegro. I should probably say: Mr. Bulatovic, I give you the presidential mandate because it suits you so well. Not over my dead body. The elections in Montenegro were completely regular. This is evident from the gist of their complaints in which they do not claim that there were any irregularities during voting, but that 12 thousand extra people voted who were entered into voters’ lists by the Constitutional Court because they had that constitutional right. Probably figuring that these people did not use their right to vote to help them, as if those voters had to have it written on their foreheads who they will vote for.

I am still absolutely prepared to look for compromise through every negotiation, but we must know what we are negotiating about. I am still the President of the Government, and am still responsible for work, for the constitutional system, for inter-ethnic tolerance in Montenegro. Momir Bulatovic is already behaving like a man who is not politically or legislatively responsible. He support street violence. I do not want chaos, I want peace and compromise so that we can reach a solution which will permit us to get back to daily activities in Montenegro, and to completely devote ourselves to the question of fundamental democratization and economic development of Montenegro.