Hard Times for the Radicals

When  the police caught up with Milika Ceko Dacevic, a Serbian Radical Party (SRS) deputy  in the Federal  Parliament and member of the Defence and  Security Board of the Federal Chamber of Citizens, no-one in Pljevlja even thought  of  repeating last year's siege of the town.  "If  I  am arrested again", Ceko boasted only a few days ago, "Milika  won't do a thing, but they would then cause a war in Montenegro,  since I  won't be able to restrain them.." It now seems clear that the state of Montenegro will wage the crucial battle against violence at the very place it has escalated the most - in Pljevlja.

After several  police actions, the town has heaved a sigh  of  relief, particularly since it has realised that there is someone who will be able to "tan" even Dacevic's "hide". The Berane  Radicals see  the  "flogging"  as the beginning of a pogrom  of Serbs  in Montenegro,  while  the Radical leaders believe  the  Montenegrin authorities  have begun squaring accounts with the Radicals  and might easily ban the party. That is out of the  question,  the General  Secretary of the ruling Montenegrin Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Svetozar Marovic said last  week,  since  the Montenegrin  government's aim is not to ban a party. However,  he said,  the state will do its best to try all  persons  committing crimes,  no matter what party they belong to. It is  increasingly obvious,  however,  that Montenegro has unexpectedly become an unpleasant stage for the Radicals.

Things  have now become clearer both to Milika Ceko  Dacevic and to those who have blindly followed him. "The Duke of  Pljevlja" is losing with unbearable lightness all that had made him invulnerable in that  town. Generals  trembled  in   his presence,  the  Montenegrin power-wielders paid court to him  to mediate  an  end  to  an armed  rebellion  Dacevic  incited last summer....

On June 19, however, a police patrol stopped the famous  Mercedes with  the PV 137-28 licence plates. We would like to  remind  you that the car was presented to Dacevic last year by Cajnice (B-H) Commander Dusan  Kornjaca.  A  crumpled piece of paper with Kornjaca's  signature  confirmed that the vehicle was "booty" and that it was presented to Dacevic, a meritorious fighter for the Serbian cause.  A  policeman  had  a  year ago found the piece of  paper  dubious  and simply confiscated the vehicle, which was the immediate cause of the siege of Pljevlja. The Mercedes now has local licence plates and  no-one can explain how it had been registered  in  Pljevlja.

There are scores of such vehicles in the town today and rumor has it  that some  people have made a lot of  money  by  registering looted  cars in Pljevlja and other Montenegrin towns. This  time, the police patrol searched the passengers of the Mercedes -  Ceko Dacevic, Milovan Vukovic and Tihomir Odovic - finding weapons and no  licenses for them, and filed charges against the  three  men. The  next day, the Mercedes failed to halt to a policeman's  stop signal  but the police caught up... The "close encounter" did  not end without an incident. The Pljevlja police claim that  Dacevic,

Vukovic and Odovic insulted the policemen and even tried to  take their  weapons away from them. One of them attacked  a  policeman with  a  knife and the other policemen  employed  force.  Dacevic started  running away, tripping over several times, which is allegedly the cause of his injuries. He was soon caught, however,  and taken  to  the station for a talk. Another charge  was  filed.  A policeman was injured in the incident.

The version of the SRS leadership in Montenegro differs from the  official

one.  Radovan Vukcevic (SRS President in Montenegro) claims the police immediately  began hitting the men with the butts of their  rifles,  that Dacevic was shot at, which is proved by  the  20 bullet shells found at the site, that Ceko was sent to a Belgrade hospital  after police torture and that his life is in danger.  

A third  version spreads throughout Pljevlja. Ceko attacked  a  policeman,  insulting  him  because his wife was  Moslem,  and  the policeman  responded  swiftly, breaking three of  Dacevic's  ribs with one blow....

The citizens of Pljevlja hope they will now be spared the  visits of  Ceko Dacevic,  since this Federal deputy is  a  resident  of Belgrade,  where he has recently bought a flat. The  police  link Ceko's  visits to Pljevlja with crimes committed there  and,  our sources claim, proof of Dacevic's involvement in the armed attack on a van with Moslems on board is being collected. No-one is able to register all the charges against Dacevic, or to enumerate  how many Radicals  have recently flown in the face of  the  law  and found themselves behind bars.

It  is,  however, indicative that a  radical  turnabout  in combating violence coincided with the SRS's fiercest threats in Montenegro. Or, rather, after its deputies in the  Montenegrin  Parliament  insisted that  the  involvement  of senior  Montenegrin  officials  in various  crimes  be  unmasked. However, it also coincided with the time when Montenegro  "became cooperative with the international community". The fact is  that, instead of the promised war, a mere storm of protests was  raised and attempts were made to present the "harassment  of  criminals from  the Radical ranks" as the "pogrom of Serbs" in  Montenegro.

The  Radical  leaders claim the Montenegrin government  wants  to provoke a war and outlaw their party. During their meetings  with government representatives, they have not refrained from  threatening:  "If we are faster, we will shoot any policeman who  stops us".

The  Radicals  are also annoyed because of the  increased  police control  in Montenegro,  because the policemen  are  armed  with machine-guns  and are stopping all suspicious vehicles  searching for arms smugglers and war profiteers.

It  now  remains to be seen who will threaten whom and  how,  and whether a secret agreement (should it be made) will cool down the passions  and result in a compromise similar to the one  made  in Pljevlja last year, or whether the authorities will finally  have to deal with the problem. The Radicals have realised that this is no  laughing matter and that they have probably forever lost  all the  support they had enjoyed not so long ago. All the protagonists  of these developments are now standing on the brightly lit stage and have  less chance for manipulations. The announced war  has  not broken out and the Montenegrin Interior Minister publicly claims  it is  finally  clear that there will not be one. This is  the  very Minister  who  had until recently armed the Radicals and who a few days ago sent a strong special police  force to Pljevlja. Ugly scenes, inevitable after a  grand amour , and a truly passionate grand amour it had  been, at least between the Montenegrin government and the Radicals.

Velizar Brajovic

Resignation

Milika Dacevic's parliamentary career in the Federal Assembly was

suddenly  cut  short by no other than SRS leader Vojislav  Seselj. Seselj  told a news conference on Thursday  that  the Serbian Radical Party has "activated" Dacevic's  resignation, which implies that the resignation had already been put in an envelope .  Seselj  indirectly confirmed  that  Dacevic's resignation was coming - he  accused Dacevic of "misusing" the party's trust, undiscipline, incidents, etc. Seselj recalled how the party had taken care of Dacevic when he  had been detained (under suspicion of terrorism), how it had given  him  2000 DM, etc, and look at him  now.  "Violating  the party discipline" regards Dacevic's ill-fated visit to  Pljevlja, where  - it  seems - he has succeeded in  causing  yet  another scandal  and  was beaten up by the local police.  The  fact  that Seselj is personally expelling Dacevic from the Federal  Assembly may  also be interpreted as a preventive measure: Dacevic's recent  behaviour in Belgrade (and outside it) has been far  from commendable  and he has antagonised many people: the role he and his  men played in the abduction of Yugoslav citizens in  Sandzak has become unpleasant: the kidnapping has been getting on  President Milosevic's nerves, since the families of the kidnapped  are making  his  life miserable. The Radical party ban on  visits  to Pljevlja  had been a favour to Milosevic: Dacevic has got  Seselj into trouble and his career in Parliament has thus ended.