Post by radovic on Jun 24, 2008 9:38:59 GMT -5
Ðukanoviæ testifies in deportation probe
24 June 2008 | 13:11 | Source: Beta
PODGORICA -- Milo Ðukanoviæ told an inquiry into the deportation of Muslims and Serbs from Montenegro to the RS that it was not done with his or the government’s approval.
Milo Ðukanoviæ (FoNet, archive)
"If certain individuals in the Interior Ministry thought that they had the minister’s consent, which means the government’s consent, that’s their problem,” the Montenegrin prime minister said.
Ðukanoviæ added that the police officers under suspicion should have sought consultations as to what to do, media reported him as saying.
An inquiry is currently under way at the Podgorica High Court into the activities of high-ranking police officials, suspected of deporting Muslims and Serbs from Montenegro to the Republika of Srpska (RS) in 1993.
Ðukanoviæ, who was also prime minister back then, said that “police officers should have consulted me as prime minister, and not President Momir Bulatoviæ, or Speaker Risto Vukèeviæ.”
He said that he had first heard about deportation at the meeting of Montenegro’s leadership, and that “a decision was taken to put an end to it.”
"I believe that this case is about the incompetent behavior of a group of high ranking members of the Montenegro police force, and that it was a consequence of changes to the work system, since, up until then, everything had functioned on the centralized security system of the former Yugoslavia (SFRJ)," Ðukanoviæ said, adding that in the case of deportation “international law had been broken, because Bosnia-Herzegovina had already become an independent country.”
The Montenegrin prime minister ruled out the possibility that the “competent MUP officials had been uninformed and had not known that fact,” adding that “one can presume that they easily acquiesced to the demands coming from Bosnia-Herzegovina and the RS,” and that “they had not been thinking about the changes brought about by international law.”
He added that he was “deeply convinced” that the suspected members of the Montenegrin police “had not done acted in a premeditated fashion” and that they “couldn’t have known” that the Muslims extradited to Bosnia-Herzegovina and the RS would be killed.
The investigation will continue today with the testimony of former state prosecutor Vladimir Šušoviæ.
24 June 2008 | 13:11 | Source: Beta
PODGORICA -- Milo Ðukanoviæ told an inquiry into the deportation of Muslims and Serbs from Montenegro to the RS that it was not done with his or the government’s approval.
Milo Ðukanoviæ (FoNet, archive)
"If certain individuals in the Interior Ministry thought that they had the minister’s consent, which means the government’s consent, that’s their problem,” the Montenegrin prime minister said.
Ðukanoviæ added that the police officers under suspicion should have sought consultations as to what to do, media reported him as saying.
An inquiry is currently under way at the Podgorica High Court into the activities of high-ranking police officials, suspected of deporting Muslims and Serbs from Montenegro to the Republika of Srpska (RS) in 1993.
Ðukanoviæ, who was also prime minister back then, said that “police officers should have consulted me as prime minister, and not President Momir Bulatoviæ, or Speaker Risto Vukèeviæ.”
He said that he had first heard about deportation at the meeting of Montenegro’s leadership, and that “a decision was taken to put an end to it.”
"I believe that this case is about the incompetent behavior of a group of high ranking members of the Montenegro police force, and that it was a consequence of changes to the work system, since, up until then, everything had functioned on the centralized security system of the former Yugoslavia (SFRJ)," Ðukanoviæ said, adding that in the case of deportation “international law had been broken, because Bosnia-Herzegovina had already become an independent country.”
The Montenegrin prime minister ruled out the possibility that the “competent MUP officials had been uninformed and had not known that fact,” adding that “one can presume that they easily acquiesced to the demands coming from Bosnia-Herzegovina and the RS,” and that “they had not been thinking about the changes brought about by international law.”
He added that he was “deeply convinced” that the suspected members of the Montenegrin police “had not done acted in a premeditated fashion” and that they “couldn’t have known” that the Muslims extradited to Bosnia-Herzegovina and the RS would be killed.
The investigation will continue today with the testimony of former state prosecutor Vladimir Šušoviæ.