Army Puts Pressure on Montenegro

Under the leadership of a newly appointed hard-line general, Yugoslav military forces based in Montenegro are chipping away at the authority of the pro-Western civilian authorities here.

Enormous pressure is being exerted on Montenegrin media through threats and demands from Yugoslav army officers. Pressure from the military is also growing on foreign correspondents, with an increased number of incidents of detention and confiscation of equipment when reporters venture too close to army sites.

NATO airstrikes here in the capital Tuesday night, which came after a week of no bombing of this small Yugoslav republic, may have been provoked by the Yugoslav 2nd Army based in Montenegro, some supporters of reform-minded President Milo Djukanovic said Wednesday.

“This was a clear provocation to get Montenegro bombed,” said Ljubisa Mitrovic, editor in chief of Vijesti, a respected independent daily newspaper published in Podgorica. “If there is no bombardment, they think that is diminishing morale and separating Montenegro from [Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic.”

Djukanovic’s government has tried to limit Montenegro’s involvement in the conflict and has urged that Yugoslav army units here not try to shoot down North Atlantic Treaty Organization planes. The republics of Montenegro and Serbia make up the rump Yugoslavia.

Milosevic named Gen. Milorad Obradovic to replace Gen. Radosav Martinovic as army commander in Montenegro last week. Obradovic is a hard-line ally of Milosevic, while Martinovic had maintained reasonably smooth relations with the civilian authorities of the Montenegrin government.

Tuesday night, the Yugoslav army used antiaircraft guns “that do not have a range of more than three kilometers [two miles], while NATO planes fly at twice that altitude,” Djukanovic’s office said in a press release. “Because of this, there is some doubt as to whether or not the strategy of the 2nd Army is to involve de facto neutral Montenegro into a conflict with NATO.”

The 2nd Army command reported Wednesday that “the NATO aggressors struck civilian targets” in Podgorica on Tuesday night.

In Brussels, however, British Air Commodore David Wilby told reporters in a Wednesday briefing that the previous night’s attacks in Montenegro came when “a single SAM-6 battery locked on to NATO aircraft . . . and in response, NATO aircraft fired two HARM missiles.”

All the planned targets of bombing Tuesday were in Serbia, NATO said. There were no reports from NATO of any bombing in Montenegro on Tuesday other than the two missiles fired after being “painted” by the radar at the antiaircraft site.

As of late Wednesday evening, the skies over Podgorica remained quiet, although air-raid sirens had sounded about 8:20 p.m.

Wednesday’s presidential press release said that “just before last night’s explosions . . . high-ranking military police officials of the Yugoslav army entered the office of the editor of the independent daily Vijesti and threatened two journalists,” warning them that they “would pay dearly” for their reporting.

A military information official who visited Vijesti’s offices Tuesday complained that the newspaper “is much more in the function of NATO propaganda than the role of defending the country,” according to a journalist familiar with what happened, who spoke on condition he not be further identified.

The official was especially angry about a front-page interview with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. “He said it was not very patriotic to publish an interview with a NATO pact leader who was giving orders for the Yugoslav people to get bombed,” the journalist said. “He also accused Vijesti of trying to make a split between Serbia and Montenegro and between the army and the people.”

The official warned that “unless Vijesti changed its editorial politics and fit in with the war surroundings, the military prosecutor and military court established after a state of war was declared will ban Vijesti,” the journalist said.

Under the Yugoslav Constitution, military authorities replace civilian authorities in government institutions during a state of war. Montenegro, however, has not recognized the legitimacy of the federal government in Belgrade, the Yugoslav and Serbian capital, since last year--for domestic political reasons that have nothing to do with the NATO bombing. Montenegro also has not recognized the current “state of war” declared by Belgrade.

It is on those grounds that the Montenegrin government claims the authority to remain in office against Belgrade’s desire to oust it.