Murder in Montenegro

[Ivo Skoric]

Who killed Dusko Jovanovic and why?

Jovanovic was an editor and journalist of anti-inependence 
Podgorica's daily Dan, and a former defender of policies of Slobodan 
Milosevic. He had a record as a politically motivated muck-raker. And 
he particularly annoyed Djukanovic's government by re-publishing the 
condemning series of stories on Montenegro's pro-independence govt 
being involved in cigarette smuggling and trafficing in people from 
Croatia's newspaper Nacional. He was killed a couple of days ago in a 
well executed gangland murder reminiscent of the Al Capone times 
(machine guns fired from a car, no silencers).

By chance or design, the police came to the scene quickly, yet the 
clues proved to be confusing and contradicting. So far, only two 
young athletes - whose uncle, the former reigning world tae-kwan-do 
champion, was himself killed by an anti-independence gunmen a few 
years ago (hence the revenge motive) - were taken into custody. But 
they - locals with good knowledge of escape routes - might have been 
used only as drivers, while the gunmen might be outsiders.

The list of people that would have a motive to kill him is pretty 
long and includes many people in Montenegrin government as well. His 
brother says he can name exactly 5 people who wanted Jovanovic dead. 
At an opposition march held to honour Jovanovic's memory on May 29, 
protesters shouted "Milo - murderer" as they passed government 
buildings in Podgorica. Djukanovic maintains that the 'other side' 
killed him with intention to destabilize Montenegro's government. The 
government called foreign forensic experts, and announced a 1 millio 
euro award for information leading to arrest of the killer, with 
minister of interior tending in his resignation pending failure to 
solve the murder case. 

Out of three cars mentioned by witnesses - VW  passat, VW golf, and 
BMW M5 SUV, the cheapest one (golf) was recovered by the police wit 
copious amounts of evidence - including guns. But the fact that the 
car was left to be found, suggests that it might be there to take the 
investigation on the wrong track. Interstingly - and that is reported 
in Croatia's Nacional - bmw had license plates from Novi Sad, and 
could be traced to private eye agency Gvozden in Vojvodina that 
employs many former infamous Red Berrets - hired guns that killed 
journalists before.

That lead could take to Vojvodina's leading organized crime figure 
Stanko Subotic Cane (whose security is provided by Gvozden). He used 
to be involved in cigarette smuggling operation and he was named as 
one of 5 people who would want Jovanovic dead, by Jovanovic's 
brother. Apparently, with loss of his political connections in 
Serbia, Subotic was trying to legitimize his crime revenues by buying 
a string of hotels on Montenegrin coast (as the US crime figures used 
to in 1950s in Las Vegas after Castro took over Havana). Jovanovic 
run a story on Subotic-Djukanovic connection just 2 days before his 
death. 

ivo

Sources:
http://www.pcnen.cg.yu/
http://www.iwpr.net/