Statement by the Speaker of the Serbian Parliament Ana Brnabić (Serbian Progressive Party) that two criminal clans from Montenegro are the most dangerous in the world, and that this would not be possible without the support of the state – is its attempt to protect the authorities in Belgrade and mask the fact that her country is at the back of the column of potential new members of the European Union (EU). Podgorica has shown its will to fight corruption and crime, which has been confirmed by the arrests of former high-ranking officials, while in Belgrade, prosecutors’ offices are threatened with disbandment if they indict a member of the government there.
Thus, the interlocutors of “Vijesti” comment on Brnabić’s assessment that Montenegro, “which does not even have 600.000 inhabitants, has the two most dangerous, most powerful criminal, mafia clans in the world – the ‘Kavčani’ and the ‘Škaljari'”.
“What do you think, is this possible without the support of the state? Is it possible that someone there did not close their eyes – not for years, but for decades, to organized crime and corruption? Is this possible without the direct support of the state leadership and the state? Well, of course not. Was anyone held accountable for that?… At no point did it slow them down or stop them,” Brnabić said at a session of the Serbian parliament the day before yesterday.
During the debate on Serbia’s European integration, and in response to the opposition’s remarks that Montenegro and Albania had made more progress in these negotiations, she stressed that she had nothing to reproach those countries for. However, she recalled that in early October, in a year when Montenegro was the “absolute champion” in the EU accession negotiations, all the defendants in the “Tunnel” affair were acquitted before the court in Podgorica.
“People dug a tunnel to the High Court in Podgorica… Now they are no longer even ‘frontrunners’, they are starting to make an agreement to join the EU as members,” Brnabić emphasized.
The Deputy Speaker of the Montenegrin Parliament reacted to her statement. Boris Pejović (Europe Now Movement), stating that the “Kavački” and “Škaljarski clans” were formed at a time when the President of Serbia cooperated excellently. Aleksandar Vučić and former Montenegrin head of state Milo Djukanovic.
ZORIĆ: MONTENEGRO SHOWED IT IS FIGHTING
Journalist for the Belgrade weekly “Vreme” and BIRN Jelena Zoric, she told “Vijesti” that a country is not made less democratic by the fact that it has organized criminal groups, but by not fighting organized crime.
“It has nothing to do with the number of clans and the number of population. Namely, according to Ana Brnabić’s logic, she is offensive to both the closer and wider neighborhood. The closer neighborhood, Montenegro, which is also on the path to the EU, as is Serbia. But the wider neighborhood, for example, Italy, which is a member of the EU. The most dangerous mafia in the world, the ‘Ndrangheta, is headquartered in Italy. According to Brnabić’s logic, she would obviously kick Italy out of the EU,” Zorić assessed.
She reiterated that the fight against organized crime, or the absence of it, is the point, adding that Brnabić’s statement that Montenegro has done nothing regarding the two criminal clans is also not true.
According to her, it is clear from Brnabić’s statement that she somewhat understands the structure of organized crime when she says that “it cannot do this without the support of the state.”
“Because we, investigative journalists and criminologists in Serbia, claim that organized crime cannot exist without the support of the state,” Zorić emphasized.
“According to Brnabić’s logic, she would kick Italy out of the EU”: Zorićphoto: Printscreen / Youtube
Correspondence from the “unlocked” Sky app, published by media in Montenegro and the region, shows links between crime and the current government in Serbia. Some of these communications also indicate connections between criminal clans and the former Montenegrin government.
She pointed out that Montenegro, unlike Serbia, has shown the possibility of changing governments in democratic processes and the existence of the will to fight corruption, and that examples of this are the arrests of high-ranking officials and functionaries.
“… In the judiciary, in the structures for combating money laundering, not only ‘classic’ criminal. Especially in the judiciary, Serbia has not yet shown that will. In recent years, much more news has come from Montenegro about how state structures are fighting organized crime, than about how organized crime is running the state,” Zorić noted.
After the fall of the three-decade rule of the Democratic Party of Socialists at the end of August 2020, the former chief special prosecutor was handcuffed. Milivoj Katnić, former special prosecutor To Saša Čađenović, former chief of police Veselin Veljović, former head of the National Security Agency Dejan Perunicic and a long-time secret police agent Duško Golubović, a security guard for decades Zoran Lazović, the former first lady of the Montenegrin judiciary Vesni Medenici…
SELAKOVIĆ AND THE GENERAL STAFF
Zorić noted that in Serbia, when prosecutors “dare” to file an indictment against a politician, member of the local government, or minister, there are announcements that the prosecutor’s office will be disbanded.
“Not to welcome the fight against corruption. That is considered an attack on the state leadership. Not to praise that the prosecution has matured to deal with political actors…”, she said.
The first Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs after the fall agrees with this assessment. Slobodan Milosevic 2000, Bozo PrelevicHe told “Vijesti” that, unlike Serbia, in Montenegro the government supports prosecutors and judges in the fight against organized crime.
“In Montenegro, people are arrested and prosecuted, and almost no one is spared. In Serbia, prosecutors are threatened and the accused are pardoned,” he said.
The case that Zorić and Prelević allude to is an indictment against the Serbian Minister of Culture. Nikola Selaković (Serbian Progressive Party), filed by the local Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime (TOK). Selaković is charged with “illegality in removing the status of cultural property from the buildings of the General Staff.”
A luxury hotel is planned in the center of Belgrade on the site of the former General Staff, which was hit in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. Jared Kushner, son-in-law of the American president Donald Trump, which is why the demolition of the building was announced. In order for this to happen, the building’s status as a cultural property was “removed”.
Selaković rejected allegations of criminal responsibility and accused TOK of “defection from the state and the people.”
“I am not the target, but President Vučić,” Selaković said.
Vučić, meanwhile, has announced that, no matter what happens, he will pardon the defendants in the General Staff case so that they can prosecute him. In early November, he called the TOK prosecutors a “corrupt gang,” while the prosecutor’s office pointed to the amendment of a set of judicial laws (which was also supported by the Serbian Minister of Justice). Nenad Vujić) that would lead to the abolition of TOK, calling it “an open attempt to politically influence the work of the prosecution and a serious attack on the constitutional and legal order.”
PRELEVIC: ONLY ONE IS INDISPUTABLE
Prelević notes that Brnabić had to take the Serbian government under her protection, which, according to him, is trying to divert attention “from the sad fact that Serbia is at the bottom of Europe” by inciting various “affairs”.
“One of these scandals is the belittling of the efforts of the authorities in Montenegro to combat organized crime,” he added.
“Prosecutors are being threatened in Serbia”: Prelevićphoto: Printscreen / Youtube
While Serbia is stagnating in negotiations with the EU and Montenegro is making progress, Vučić has proposed the Western Balkans joining the Union as a “package.” Some analysts have assessed that the response to this idea was the message from the German Chancellor. Friedrich Merz – that the writing of the treaty on Montenegro’s accession to the EU should begin.
Asked whether Brnabić should have “looked into his own backyard” before making such a statement, the interviewee replied that looking into one’s own backyard is not very popular even when there is dozens of pieces of evidence pointing to an undoubted connection between the government and crime.
“Every journalist who publishes evidence of criminal acts is threatened, and the latest case is Vuk Cvijić“, he said.
Cvijić, a journalist for the weekly “Radar”, was threatened the day before yesterday to “be careful what he publishes tomorrow (Thursday), which is why he gave a statement to the police.
Prelević said that Serbia lives in a culture of negation of reality and that it is easiest to talk about conspiracy theories or deny anyone’s success.
“Well, in Serbia it is (Novak) Djokovic “Disputable. There is only one indisputable one and it has set Serbia back for decades,” he concluded.
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