WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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There are two cases in which monasteries and temples of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) in Montenegro are linked to weapons and persons of security interest, writes Radio Free Europe (RSE).
One is the publication of transcripts of conversations from the SKY application of two alleged members of the "Skaljar" criminal clan, in which the SPC is mentioned as the alleged financier of "100 Kalashnikovs" before the 2020 parliamentary elections.
The second is the stay of armed civilians in the Cetinje Monastery during the enthronement of Metropolitan Joaniki in September 2021.
The first was prosecuted in the Special Prosecutor's Office, while the second case was discussed at the Parliamentary Security Committee.
The first related to the period before the 2020 parliamentary elections, in which the three-decade rule of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) was replaced by the majority-led pro-Serbian Democratic Front.
After those elections, the Government of Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić was formed, which was strongly influenced by the Serbian Orthodox Church.
According to the statements of the participants themselves, it was formed in the Ostrog monastery with the mediation of the then Metropolitan Amfilohi.
The enthronement of Metropolitan Ioanniki followed a year later.
The topic of the potential storage of weapons in SPC facilities became topical after an arsenal of weapons and military equipment was found in the courtyard of the Banjska monastery in Kosovo.
The Eparchy of Raško-Prizren, whose responsibility is the monastery, stated that the found weapons and military equipment were "rejected by the people leaving the monastery".
The monastery was used by an armed group that clashed with the Kosovo police on September 24, when policeman Afrim Bunjaku was killed and several others were injured.
Armament in the Cetinje monastery?
The riots in Cetinje broke out on September 5, 2021, when citizens organized a protest and blocked the approaches to the city in an attempt to prevent the enthronement of SPC Metropolitan Joanikij Mićović in the Cetinje Monastery.
They asked that the enthronement not be in Cetinje, which is a symbol of Montenegrin state sovereignty, but also the seat of the SPC in Montenegro.
Demonstrators pointed out that the enthronement of Cetinje was an attempt at Serbian "occupation" and clericalization. The police broke up the protests, and Ioannikije and Patriarch Porfirije were brought to the monastery by a military helicopter, accompanied by the anti-terrorist unit of the police.
Before the enthronement, but also during the ceremony, several armed civilians were seen in the monastery, so civil activist Aleksandar Zeković filed a complaint with the Police Directorate and the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office.
He asked to check whether there are unknown persons in it "who possess firearms and other means suitable for committing serious crimes against life and limb".
In the photos from the event itself, along with heavily armed police officers and SPC priests, there were also civilians with weapons.
Zoran Miljanić, the then State Secretary in the MUP, announced at the time that "he has no information that there were armed persons in the Cetinje monastery, except for the protection of protected persons, and anyone outside the system of the Montenegrin security services".
The Committee for Security and Defense of the Montenegrin Parliament also discussed this topic in a closed session on September 27, 2021.
As Predrag Bošković, a member of the opposition DPS at the time, confirmed for Radio Free Europe (RSE), the Committee discussed the report of the National Security Agency and the Police Directorate on this case.
By the way, neither the Agency nor the Police Directorate had to inform us about this, because we saw in the pictures people with long pipes who did not have police uniforms - Bošković.
He instructed us to seek details from the National Security and Police Agency, adding that the claims of the DPS in the run-up to the enthronement and after it proved to be a "good prediction".
Namely, in those days, the DPS asked the Government to make a statement on allegations of the involvement of members of foreign services in internal security issues in Montenegro.
It is worrying information that special military teams and intelligence officers from Serbia arrived in Montenegro before the enthronement. We are talking about entities that do not have, nor are they allowed to have, any authority on the territory of our country - according to the announcement of the DPS at the end of August 2021.
As Pobjeda from Podgorica announced at the time, the names of dozens of persons of security interest who were in the monastery were blacked out in the Report that was considered by the Parliamentary Committee.
The session was interrupted because the members of the Board from the opposition asked Dejan Vukšić, then the director of the Agency, and today the adviser to the President of Montenegro Jakov Milatović, to inform them of those names.
The Agency and the Police Directorate did not respond to RSE's inquiry about the details of the Report related to the identification of armed persons in civilian clothes in the Cetinje Monastery in 2021.
RSE also sent questions to the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral regarding the residence of those persons, but the answer did not arrive.
Procurement of weapons financed by the SOC?
The Montenegrin Prosecutor's Office is investigating the allegations of SKY communication published in the media about the possible acquisition of weapons and the preparation of resistance ahead of the 2020 elections.
The case that was formed in the High Prosecutor's Office on the occasion of the published transcripts related to the procurement of weapons and the preparation of armed resistance ahead of the parliamentary elections, after the evaluation of the content, was submitted to the jurisdiction of the Special Prosecutor's Office in October 2022 - the High Prosecutor's Office told RSE.
M-portal published the intercepted and deciphered correspondence via the SKY application of two members of the "Skaljar" criminal clan, whose identity it announced, and in which the SPC is mentioned as the financier of arms procurement.
The conversation took place two months before the elections in August 2020. In it, one member of the criminal group informs the other that he intends to buy 100 Kalashnikovs and "that the Church will pay for it."
At the time, the SPC Metropolis announced that they expected the authorities to give a "worthy and fair assessment" of the published allegations.
In response to RSE's inquiry as to how far the investigation has come, the Special Prosecutor's Office announced a response in the coming days.
The fundamental contract protects the Church
The possibility for the police and security services to check possible reports that there are weapons in some of the religious buildings of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro is further hampered after the signing of the Basic Agreement in August of last year.
That Agreement regulates the relations between the State of Montenegro and the SPC.
In the Agreement signed by Prime Minister Dritan Abazović and SPC Patriarch Porfirije, it is stated "that state authorities cannot undertake security measures without the prior approval of the competent church authorities".
Without the prior approval of the church authorities, the security services can intervene only in "cases when it is required by reasons of urgency to protect people's lives and health".
The non-governmental sector and part of the public particularly criticized that part of the contract by which the Government gave extraterritorial status to the religious buildings of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
It started with Arcana in the Cetinje monastery
The first known case of bringing weapons into SPC churches in Montenegro happened on Christmas Day, January 6, 1992, when the then Metropolitan Amfilohije blessed members of the Serbian paramilitary formation "Serbian Volunteer Guard" led by Željko Ražnatović Arkan in the Cetinje Monastery.
Arkan was later accused of war crimes before the International Court in The Hague, but the trial did not take place because he was killed in Belgrade in the meantime.
Who were the people of Arkanov and why were they not held accountable for war crimes?
The gathering in front of the monastery was attended by supporters of the pro-Serbian parties of the time, and photos from that time show Arkan's "guards", armed with long barrels.
POBJEDA
