MONTENEGRO CONTINUES TO COVER FOR ITS 1992 WAR CRIMES

In May 1992, Montenegrin police cooperating with the Bosnian Serb Army carried out a month-long hunt for male Muslim refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina in Montenegro(1). Approximately 50 persons were illegally arrested and deported back to Bosnia and Herzegovina where Bosnian Serb Army agents executed most of them. Only a few survived the horrors of the Foca concentration camp by being exchanged as hostages.

No official investigation of this war crime ever occurred although this criminal police operation has been public knowledge for 13 years.

Montenegro has been bound by both the International Covenant of Human Rights prohibiting arbitrary deprivation of liberty and international humanitarian law prohibiting war crimes against civilian population since that time. Domestic criminal law at the time prohibited " taking hostages, collective punishment, illegal deportation to concentration camps and other illegal detention, deprivation of the right to fair trial " as war crimes against civilian population (FRY Criminal Code, Art. 142). Previous and current law provides for no statute of limitation for prosecution of war crimes.

In addition to hundreds of witnesses, the facts of the crime are evidenced in official documents. Montenegro 's Minister of Interior Nikola Pejakovic replied to a parliamentary query on the issue in 1993 that the police had performed the action in accordance with the Office of the State Prosecutor. The Minister's reply lists the names of 48 Muslim refugees arrested in Montenegro along with the dates and locations of their deportation, including Foca concentration camp. In a written response to a plea that the wife of the deported Alenko Titoric directed to the then Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, the Ministry of Interior in August 1992 explicitly stated that her husband "was apprehended as a hostage, along with the others intended to become part of a group of Muslims to be exchanged in Bosnia for captured Serb territorial fighters".

Retired officer of the Ministry of Interior, Mr. Slobodan Pejovic, who had bravely testified in public to the details of this police operation, survived two attempts on his life and numerous other threats and intimidation incidents, none of which were ever investigated by the authorities.

Montenegrin police are also responsible for the forced disappearance of Mr. Malik Meholjic, a prominent pre-war mayor of Srebrenica, who also sought refuge in Montenegro with his wife and two sons. Meholjic was arrested in the coastal town of Bar on 15 May 1992 not to be heard from since. His name is missing from the above mentioned list of deported refugees. The Montenegrin authorities never informed the Meholjic family on his whereabouts. The current Minister of Interior, Dragan Djurovic, and the Prime Minister Djukanovic, who occupied the same function when the crimes occurred, ignored three recent requests from the family for any information.

After 13 years of inaction on the part of the Montenegrin authorities, the families of the victims filed suits against the Ministry of Interior seeking damages. The first claim on behalf of Alenko Titoric's family was filed on 6 December 2004 , followed by further 26 claims. Several more will be filed for the survivors of Foca concentration camp. Although four months has passed since the first claim was filed against the Montenegrin authorities, the Podgorica Basic Court has not yet served the claim to the defendant in violation of the legal deadline prescribing only a month for that action.

Moreover, the administration of the Parliament of the Republic of Montenegro recently admitted to to the legal representatives of the victims' families having destroyed the above mentioned Response of Interior Minister Pejakovic to the Parliament as "irrelevant and worthless material", and that other relevant documents related to the 1992 deportation of refugees are "missing".

In May 2005 there will be a sad 13-year anniversary of this horrific crime against innocent civilians who sought refuge from the Bosnian war in Montenegro . This will also mark the anniversary of Montenegrin authorities, the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Interior, the Parliament and the State Prosecutor covering for this crime and obstructing justice.

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 compensate the victims' families for their loss.

Attached for Your information:

1) List of persons illegally arrested and deported in May 1992;

2) Response of the Ministry of Interior to a plea directed to Milo Djukanovic by Mrs. Danijela Stupar-Titoric, wife of the abducted Alenko Titoric, No. 905/3, 18 August 1992;

3) Request for information on the investigation directed to the Supreme State Prosecutor, Vesna Medenica, 7 April 2005 .

4) "Open Season on Refugees" by Velizar Brajovic, April 11, 1994 , Vreme News Digest Agency No. 133, please see at http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/serbian_digest/133/t133-3.htm

Available in English upon request:

1) The first claim (of 26) filed with the Podgorica Basic Court on behalf of the Titoric family;

2) Response to the Parliament by Minister of Interior, Nikola Pejakovic, No. 278/2, 8 April 1993 ;

3) First Request for Information on Forced Disappearance of Malik Meholjic, directed to Minister of Interior, Dragan Djurovic, on 28 December 2004 ;

4) Open Letter to Mr. Milo Djukanovic, Prime Minister of the Republic of Montenegro , March 2005;

5) Letter to the President of the Basic Court in Podgorica, Mr. Zoran Pazin, 6 April 2004 .

For further information or comments please contact:

Mr. Dragan Prelevic, attorney at law

Mrs. Tea Gorjanc Prelevic, LL.M., associate

PRELEVIC LAW FIRM

74 Slobode St. , 81 000 Podgorica , Montenegro , Serbia & Montenegro

Tel: +382 81 232 122, 232 348,

Gsm:+381 67 600 505/506

Fax: +382 81 232 358

dp@prelevic.com

tgp@prelevic.com

www.prelevic.com

(1)Following the dissolution of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Montenegro and Serbia on 27 April 1992 proclaimed the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , whereas Bosnia and Herzegovina succumbed into a large scale war after being recognized as independent state by the international community in April 1992.