The Product of the System

For the first time the head of the Montenegrin state admitted to foreign journalists: "As a state and a nation we are practically in prison". Mr.Bulatovic explained that in such conditions nothing can be legally obtained and that soon the entire economy will turn into a black market and a gray economy, that around 60 percent of the social product goes through such a market and that Jezdimir Vasiljevic is a product of that system, adding that the state of Montenegro had fulfilled all its obligations towards that businessman and that the signed contracts are no longer valid.

It is still not known for sure how much the entire dispute is worth. The announced amount of around 120 million DM that is owed to bank account owners, financial experts do not see as an unsolvable problem, but few people really believe in this. According to VREME's source, which is engaged in business deals with "Jugoskandik", there is a zero missing from that sum because the debt to bank account owners is worth millions of marks so that the sales of the "non existent" gasoline could practically solve nothing except that it would give some hope to the more gullible ones. There is enough gasoline at gasoline stations in Montenegro for all those who can buy it, but one easily detects the uneasiness because of the constant claims that this is "Jugoskandik's" gasoline, and this is further supported by Montenegrins in Serbia who say that the attitude to them has suddenly changed.

The Montenegrin government made no public statements after that one denying all of Vasiljevic's accusations. Meanwhile, his partners in Montenegro keep informing the public about the unilateral break of the contract with "Jugoskandik" and the explanations for such acts most often sound astonishing. Namely, it came as a relief when it was announced that, with the Montenegrin government's consent, the "Budva coastline" broke the contract on the leasing of Sveti Stefan with the explanation that the lease-holder did not fulfill his obligations resulting from the contract". Best of all in this whole affair is that many secrets will be revealed. True, no one can know how much gasoline Mr.Vasiljevic really has in Montenegro, but it is also true that gasoline evaporates and that there is less and less of it every day. This is also pointed to by Milorad Micko Vukotic, the director of the Small Businesses Bank, who claims that the prolongation of the sales of gasoline brings into question the possibility of collecting the outstanding claims. Namely, gasoline evaporates in two ways - but worst of all for it is to lie around in "Jugopetrol's" storehouses, because it is being eaten up day after day by storage charges, so that it is only "Jugopetrol" that benefits from the prolongation of the settlement of the dispute. Finally, this firm has "revealed" a business secret by announcing that, in its storehouse, there are only 7890 tons of oil derivatives, owned by "Jugoskandik", and that, according to director general Nikola Dragomanovic, no one has used them so far. The director stresses that the quantity being mentioned by Mr.Vasiljevic and his lawyer Protic is beyond reason because that is more than his warehouse can store. Therefore, one cannot seek there 50 or 70 million DM, the sums "Jugoskandik's" creditors and bank account owners are comforting themselves with, but rather, the amount registered in documents.

No one knows for sure whether the state apparatus will launch an investigation of the business deals of Vasiljevic and his partners, but the Montenegrin public prosecutor, Mr.Vladimir Susovic, has made it clear to the public that evidence is being collected and that when this is completed charges will probably be brought against Vasiljevic for his threats to the Montenegrin leadership and that he would be tried in his absence.

It remains to be seen whether the prosecutor will stop at this. However, the police, inspectors and the financial police have completed, after forty days, the inspection of the Small Businesses Bank. It has been said that the results of the inspection will be made public in some ten days, but some information did leak - that, at least as foreign currency savings are concerned, everything is - clean.