MONTENEGRO STATE OFFICIALS ARE DESTROYING EVIDENCE OF 1992 WAR CRIME
AGAINST BOSNIAN MUSLIM REFUGEES

According to the recent written response of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Montenegro to a claim filed for redress for the 1992 war crime against refugees who were illegally apprehended by the Montenegrin police and handed over the border as prisoners of war to Radovan Karadzic 's soldiers in Bosnia, the Ministry of Interior holds no documentation evidencing this crime.

This is an inconsistent response because the families of several illegally deported and murdered refugees possess the original written responses issued by the same Ministry stating that their loved ones " were apprehended as hostages, intended to become part of a group of Muslims to be exchanged in Bosnia for captured Serb territorial fighters".

Additionally, the administration of the Parliament of the Republic of Montenegro earlier this year admitted to having destroyed the Response of the 1993 Interior Minister Nikola Pejakovic to the Parliament, evidencing deportation of 48 refugees, as "irrelevant and worthless material". The argument of Parliament Secretary Milan Radovic in favour of destroying this crucial evidence of direct command by the highest state officials over the 1992 war crime operation was that the Ministry of Interior should keep the document on file, so there was no need for the Parliament to keep it as well. The legal representatives of the victim's families have in their possession the Parliament's written record of destruction of this document.

The defendant Ministry of Interior's statement of bearing no evidence of the operation that occurred under its competence thirteen years ago, underlines the unfortunate continuity of the policy of non-investigation of war crimes committed on the soil of Montenegro by its own agents. (1) The necessary question that follows is whether this is so because the current Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic was holding the same post in 1992 when the crime had occurred.

This, together with the fact that the State prosecutor has yet to initiate a single criminal procedure in connection with this crime and that the court is processing the civil claims with considerable delay, justifies fears that the families of the victims, as well as six victims who survived deportation, will ever see justice in Montenegro.

On behalf of the victim families, we kindly ask you to use your influence on the institutions and individuals capable of influencing the Montenegrin authorities to finally, without any further delay, prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes and provide redress for the victims' families.

Mr. Dragan Prelevic, attorney at law
Mrs. Tea Gorjanc Prelevic, LL.M., associate lawyer

PRELEVIC LAW FIRM

74 Slobode St. , 81 000 Podgorica , Montenegro , Serbia & Montenegro
Tel: +382 20 510 506, 232 348,
Gsm:+381 67 600 505/506
Fax: +382 81 232 358

dp@prelevic.com
tgp@prelevic.com

(1) One should recall that the war crime of abduction of Muslim passengers in the train station of Strpci tried in Montenegro involved neither the soil of Montenegro nor responsibility of Montenegro state agents. Also, the Montenegro officials' apology and payment of some proportion of damage caused while attacking Dubrovnik , was due to the fact that some Montenegro nationals participated in the attack under command of the Yugoslav Army, and again, not under direct command of the Montenegro officials. The 1992 crime of deportation of Bosnian refugees by the Montenegro Interior Ministry is the gravest war crime for which the state of Montenegro , i.e. their highest officials are directly responsible.