Post by radovic on Jul 22, 2009 13:15:35 GMT -5
Former Ðukanoviæ adviser “fears for his life”
22 July 2009 | 13:17 | Source: Tanjug
PODGORICA -- Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Ðukanoviæ’s former adviser, Ratko Kneževiæ, says that he fears for his life.
Kneževiæ has accused Ðukanoviæ of being involved in cigarette smuggling activities during the 1990s.
In an interview with Podgorica daily Vijesti, Kneževiæ, who lives in London and has dual British and Croatian citizenship, said that, after this interview, the “cabinet of death will be meeting” as it has many times before.
He claimed that he had also been warned of the danger he was in by Croatian security services.
Kneževiæ said he had informed Ðukanoviæ of the countless death threats he had been receiving from the Montenegrin prime minister’s friends by letter in February 2001, singling out Serbian crime baron Stanko Subotiæ.
Kneževiæ said that he had also given a copy of this letter to the FBI, and to the security services in those countries whose citizenship he had, as well as to countries he travelled to and worked in regularly.
He said that one copy had been given to former U.S. ambassador in Belgrade, William Montgomery, who had fixed him “a briefing regarding my security with American experts in the U.S. embassy in Zagreb.”
Speaking of the danger Croatian journalist Ivo Pukaniæ had been in, Kneževiæ said that his murder had “proven” this danger, and that he had died “as a victim of his trade, his pen, his courage and the courage of his journalists.”
“His life was ‘a chronicle of looming death’ since he stopped the strongest Mafia organization in the Balkans in the 20th century with his writing,” Kneževiæ said.
He said that he was convinced that, had it not been for Pukaniæ, the “tobacco cartel” would be ruling not only Montenegro today, but also Serbia and Croatia.
Kneževiæ claims that Ðukanoviæ had intentionally “replaced” Prime Minister Željko Šturanoviæ in order to return to the post, as that had been the only way to receive political immunity from an Italian indictment for involvement in the cigarette smuggling racket and ensure that that file returned to the archives.
As far as the Hague Tribunal was concerned, Kneževiæ called on Ðukanoviæ to state how much money he had spent to hush up “his responsibility” for the attacks on Dubrovnik by Montenegrin police forces.
To that end, he claimed, Ðukanoviæ had personally hired film director Veljko Buljajiæ, who had spent years visiting the Croatian authorities to persuade them to stop hounding Ðukanoviæ, Kneževiæ said.
22 July 2009 | 13:17 | Source: Tanjug
PODGORICA -- Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Ðukanoviæ’s former adviser, Ratko Kneževiæ, says that he fears for his life.
Kneževiæ has accused Ðukanoviæ of being involved in cigarette smuggling activities during the 1990s.
In an interview with Podgorica daily Vijesti, Kneževiæ, who lives in London and has dual British and Croatian citizenship, said that, after this interview, the “cabinet of death will be meeting” as it has many times before.
He claimed that he had also been warned of the danger he was in by Croatian security services.
Kneževiæ said he had informed Ðukanoviæ of the countless death threats he had been receiving from the Montenegrin prime minister’s friends by letter in February 2001, singling out Serbian crime baron Stanko Subotiæ.
Kneževiæ said that he had also given a copy of this letter to the FBI, and to the security services in those countries whose citizenship he had, as well as to countries he travelled to and worked in regularly.
He said that one copy had been given to former U.S. ambassador in Belgrade, William Montgomery, who had fixed him “a briefing regarding my security with American experts in the U.S. embassy in Zagreb.”
Speaking of the danger Croatian journalist Ivo Pukaniæ had been in, Kneževiæ said that his murder had “proven” this danger, and that he had died “as a victim of his trade, his pen, his courage and the courage of his journalists.”
“His life was ‘a chronicle of looming death’ since he stopped the strongest Mafia organization in the Balkans in the 20th century with his writing,” Kneževiæ said.
He said that he was convinced that, had it not been for Pukaniæ, the “tobacco cartel” would be ruling not only Montenegro today, but also Serbia and Croatia.
Kneževiæ claims that Ðukanoviæ had intentionally “replaced” Prime Minister Željko Šturanoviæ in order to return to the post, as that had been the only way to receive political immunity from an Italian indictment for involvement in the cigarette smuggling racket and ensure that that file returned to the archives.
As far as the Hague Tribunal was concerned, Kneževiæ called on Ðukanoviæ to state how much money he had spent to hush up “his responsibility” for the attacks on Dubrovnik by Montenegrin police forces.
To that end, he claimed, Ðukanoviæ had personally hired film director Veljko Buljajiæ, who had spent years visiting the Croatian authorities to persuade them to stop hounding Ðukanoviæ, Kneževiæ said.