Montenegro Police Chief Questioned

02 11 2007 Podgorica _ Montenegro’s police chief was questioned on Thursday by lawmakers about controversial police investigations, in the first hearing of its kind in the history of the country’s parliament.

The Director of the Police Administration, Veselin Veljovic, was quoted by deputies as saying that the investigation into the attack on writer Jevrem Brkovic and the murder of his bodyguard, Srdjan Vojicic, was continuing, while police considered the case involving the assault on Zeljko Ivanovic, director of the Montenegrin daily Vijesti, as closed.

“The police director told us that the Ivanovic case is closed and has been handed over to another competent institution”, Dragan Kujovic, chairman of parliament’s Committee for Security and Defense, said on Thursday.

“Mr Veljovic promised us that police will work diligently on resolving the murder of Vojicic and the attack on Brkovic”, Kujovic said.

Ivanovic was beaten up two months ago, while Vojicic was killed and Brkovic beaten a year ago.

Because of the lack of progress in the police investigations of these cases, the governing Social Democratic Party, SDP, had initiated the hearing.

Veljovic declined to comment afterwards.

Kujovic said that the hearing “allows us to continue our work, putting democratic pressure on the state machine with the aim of protecting the human rights of Montenegrin citizens”.

Committee members were divided in their assessment of Veljovic’s anwers.

“We got some information which cleared up some doubts and contradictory views on these incidents from the points of view of the victims, their families and the public”, Borislav Banovic from the SDP said.

The representative of the opposition Serb List, Dobrilo Dedeic, said there had been no real progress in these investigations.

He criticized Veljovic for giving selective information, but said that the Serb List would not request his resignation, as he gave several “honest statements”.

This was the first hearing involving the questioning of a state official, as part of parliamentary oversight of the the administration, in the history of the Montenegrin legislature. (Birn)