WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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SOURCE: RTCG- AUTHOR: M.J. GDNUS
The Inquiry Committee is currently holding a session, the agenda of which includes taking a statement from Duško Marković, former Prime Minister of Montenegro, former Minister of Justice and former Director of the National Security Agency. Marković is being questioned regarding cases of politically motivated murders, physical attacks and beatings of journalists. Marković denied any connection to the mafia, the murders of Duško Jovanović and Goran Žugić, and said that he was never a "keeper of secrets", because all information was available to official structures. He rejected accusations of political liquidations from the State Security Service, emphasizing that his role was to preserve peace in unstable times.
Opening remarks
"This day is good for Montenegrin democracy and the development of society. I am here at your invitation, aware that I am coming to a hearing that by its nature has no legal logic. With this, I want to show that it is the obligation of all heads of state bodies to respond to discussions that can have the goal of strengthening society and institutions," Marković emphasized.
He says that he has dedicated his entire professional engagement to strengthening institutions and building trust in them.
"Even when they were insufficient and endangered. That is what makes the best people, and that is why I am here today. Although this invitation has purely political connotations, I will leave them for another time," Marković said.
He says that the cliché about him "as the keeper of all secrets" is inappropriate, and that his superiors and operatives knew about everything he was working on.
"Today is also an opportunity to clarify a platitude. There is nothing that only I know. Everything that I know is known by the operatives who collected information, by the analysts who translated it into reports and analyses, by my then superiors whom we informed in accordance with the law," says Marković.
Questions
NSD MP Jovan Vučurović spoke about the murder of Goran Žugić, and stated that the entire investigation was conducted sloppily.
"Do you know anything about the documentation that Goran Stanjević delivered to Žugić immediately before the murder. The documentation contains data that places Milo Đukanović at the top of the pyramid for cigarette smuggling. Did you have meetings with the leaders of Italian mafia groups and do you have information that someone else met with them. Did Stanjević perhaps deliver the aforementioned documentation to you?", Vučurović asked.
Marković replied that he did not know Stanjević, and that he had never met him in his life, nor had he received the documentation.
"I was not in possession of that documentation and I do not know what its contents are," said Marković. He says he has never had any contact with any mafia, neither Italian nor Montenegrin.
"Those structures did not have the opportunity to approach me," said Marković. "I did not allow the mafia to approach me, the mafia was my target. Not personally, but my services," Marković emphasized.
Vučurović also asked Marković about the murder of Dan editor Duško Jovanović, and pointed to a recent statement by a police officer who said on television that there was obstruction of the investigation within the Police Directorate itself.
Marković is not aware of this information.
"I do not know that there is information about obstruction of the police in connection with the murder of Duško Jovanović. If so, let it be investigated. Today, the judiciary, the police, and the prosecution are free from the influence of the former government, so let them investigate," said Marković.
Vučurović showed a diagram of the organizers and those who ordered the murder of Duško Jovanović that appeared in the media.
"Have you seen this diagram, and can you tell us what the full names are? The documents state that the organizers include the initials D.M., police, and SDB. Did this police officer mark you with those initials?", Vučurović asked.
Marković says that he has not seen any diagram, that he is not familiar with it, but that he assumes that the initial corresponds to his first and last name.
"But it means nothing to me, nor does it make me nervous. The State Security Service was not the organizer of this or any other murder. I do not have that information about whether someone from the service did it, but if so, they should be held accountable," Marković emphasized.
He pointed out that the Seventh Directorate existed, but that there is no information that this service was a "political bludgeon".
Vučurović also pointed to the rifle used to kill Jovanović, which is suspected to have come from the ANB depot, and asked him about the destruction of official records.
Marković says he has no information that the rifle used to kill Jovanović was from the reserve depot. "I don't have that information, I heard it in the media," Marković pointed out.
He suggested that the MPs obtain the information from the prosecution and request that the files be opened.
Vučurović says that it is very logical that Marković knows this information, considering the role he had during that period, and that he suspects that he allowed himself to be only an "ikebana".
"I also ask whether other rifles from the ANB depot were used for liquidations, and whether the ANB and SDB recruited criminals for dirty work?" he pointed out is Vučurović.
Marković claims that this part was not relevant while he was at the head of the security sector.
"The service obtained data through associate positions. Associate positions are also provided in structures that are commendable. But it is done in a legal manner," he emphasized and stated that those interested should take the data they are interested in from the ANB.
Vučurović emphasized that he was dissatisfied with the answers, and that he concluded that Marković did not ask anything.
"Although you should have been the source of most of the information in relation to the questions we asked, it turned out that you were not," said Vučurović.
He says that Marković admitted that tobacco smuggling was a state job.
"We heard that the DPS government had to engage in criminal activities in order to feed the citizens. I am also satisfied that the Inquiry Committee is fulfilling its purpose," Vučurović emphasized in his comment.
Vučurović says that Milo Đukanović was not telling the truth when he said that the "seventh administration" does not exist, and whose existence Marković acknowledged today at the committee.
"I expected more from you, but I did not expect you to hide behind the ministers of the interior, and I did not expect you to put part of the blame on them," Vučurović stressed.
Vučurović says that he is dissatisfied with the actions of the judiciary, which is "a disgrace to Montenegro, a cancer in the wounds of Montenegro."
He asked whether the car used to murder Duško Jovanović belonged to the Ministry of the Interior and who used it.
DPS MP Oskar Huter thanked Marković for coming to the hearing, and asked for clarification on how the ANB was structured since 2005?
"How did the ANB deal with criminal cases back then?" Huter asked.
Duško Marković says that in October 1998 he took on the leadership position of the State Security Service.
"What the service did had to be verified by the Minister of Internal Affairs. That was the period from 1998 to 2005. That was a period when we also had a political crisis, and that was a period when Montenegro was exposed to great security and intelligence pressure. That was a period when every day in Montenegro there was fear of some serious security incident," Marković pointed out.
He says that for these reasons Montenegro was also introduced into a state of emergency in 1999, to which, as he states, Sobodan Milošević contributed.
"In that situation, Montenegro had to enter into a very rapid reform of the security sector, over 20,000 officers were hired, but Montenegro preserved the peace," Marković pointed out.
He says that he contributed to preserving peace and preventing the spillover of war from other countries.
He says that during that period the service could not deal with solving criminal acts.
"The service could not legally deal with the prosecution and trial of perpetrators of criminal acts," Marković claims. He has read the powers of the police and prosecutor's office in the case of the prosecution or trial of perpetrators of criminal acts.
He says that neither the DB nor the ANB had such powers.
"That was a difficult time, which forced Montenegro to feed its population," Marković reminded.
He says that he was also threatened.
"I was also threatened and I don't talk about it. I wore a bulletproof vest but I don't talk about it. The most threatened person in the Balkans in 1999 was Milo Đukanović," Marković pointed out.
"We were not people who were locked in a room and planned how to kill someone who was against us. Many are guilty of their own fates, but I don't want to talk about that," Marković emphasized.
SNP MP Bogdan Božović asked Marković about the murder of Duško Jovanović.
He recalled the first assassination attempt, when explosives were wrapped in a financial report, but also the activities of the black threes. Božović asked Marković what position he held at the time of Jovanović's murder, and how it was possible that Jovanović's life was threatened for a long period of time without state institutions reacting?
Marković says that when Jovanović stated that security was at risk and that the State Security Service was behind it, "I spoke with Minister Jovićević, told him that this was a serious qualification at the expense of the service and that my suggestion as a minister was to open the case and launch an investigation.
"Jovićević said that it was his job, not mine, and that he was in contact with the family," Marković pointed out. Marković says that he even suggested that a security assessment be carried out for Jovanović.
SD MP Nikola Zirojević claims that the goal of this Committee is to create a spectacle. He thanked Marković for coming to the hearing.
He asked for information about the attack on Jevrem Brković and the murder of his bodyguard.
Democrat MP Momčilo Leković says that someone who was at the head of state security for years should come and talk about the terrible things that happened in those years.
"I'm interested in who you were thinking of, and whether you were thinking of Milo Đukanović at the moment when you said that "there is nothing that only you know?", Leković asked.
"In several public statements you have implied that the state security service is ready for liquidations, what does that mean?", Leković pointed out when asked a question.
He asked Marković and what he knows about the beating of boxer Aleksandar Saša Pejanović.
MP Vladimir Dobričanin asked how it was possible that an accomplice in the murder of Duško Jovanović had been in prison for 19 years, without any of his associates being identified.
"It is obvious that Mandić took a vow of silence," Dobričanin pointed out.
DNP leader Milan Knežević reminded Marković that he had covered very important positions for almost three decades
"I wish we had never formed this Inquiry Committee, and that the courts and prosecutors had done their job," Knežović pointed out.
He asked for information about who in the security sector knew all this information, and whether he exchanged information with Đukanović.
"Who ordered the attack on Predrag Šuković? When commenting on that case with Petar Komnenić, you said that the goal was to harm you. Who wanted to harm you?", Knežević asked.
Marković says he has no answer to this question.
"I don't know. I was very interested to find out. Because it was a very important moment for Montenegro, we had some operational information that an incident would occur," Marković pointed out.
He suspects that there are political motives behind this, and that information came from Serbia from a tavern that something would happen in Montenegro that would make it impossible for Marković to be prime minister.
He says that the statements of Colonel Aleksić, who said on the show that Marković was the one who ordered it, are meaningless.
Knežević reminded him that Marković stated that even before the assassination he had information about Duško Jovanović's security being at risk.
"Did you ever call Jovanović to put pressure on journalists not to highlight topics that concern you? Did you have meetings with Duško Golubović and Zoran Lazarević before and after the assassination? Are there any official notes about that? Did you meet with members of the Zemun clan in UIKS?", Knežević asked, among other things.
He asked if it was true that he asked Jovanović to sell "Dan".
"I was very close to Jovanović when we were in the unified DPS. The political division took us to different sides. I called him when it was published in Dan that I was fishing for trout in the Durmitor National Park with dynamite", Marković pointed out. He says he asked for a denial, which he did not get on the front page.
"The second time we met was at his invitation. He said that he had decided to sell his share in Dan. "He asked and said that there were reasons that kept him from working at Dan and whether he had anyone who might be interested in selling it," Marković said.
He did not, as he claims, have any particular interest in it.
When asked why Beli Raspopović was killed, Marković said that all he knew was that the criminal milieu of Serbia - Republika Srpska was behind Raspopović's murder, but he did not know what the motives were.
Marković said that he had never met members of the "Zemun clan", Dušan Spasojević and Mile Luković, who had State Security ID cards.
"I can now say with all my heart that the ANB was behind the murder of Zoran Đinđić," said Milan Knežević.
Andrija Nikolić (DPS) assessed that the need to create this Inquiry Committee was an indicator of the incompetence of the current majority.
He asked Marković to talk about the connection between the intelligence services of Serbia and Montenegro.
Marković said that cooperation was restored only later, after In 2005, when Mr. Bulatović came to the head of the BIA
"That cooperation was good and correct, much better than in the previous period. In the late nineties, there was neither cooperation nor trust," he emphasized.
GP URA MP Filip Adžić said that these were murders that occurred almost weekly in Montenegro, and that many have not been solved to this day, although the state had the capacity to solve them.
"Therefore, there is no doubt that these are murders with the signature of the state. We know that the evidence in the case of the murder of Duško Jovanović sent to Wiesbaden was probably falsified," Adžić stated, among other things.
He also said that people did not speak about these events even though they had information, because they did not trust the system.
