Milo Đukanović
Milo Đukanović (Мило Ђукановић in Cyrillic) (born February 15, 1962 in Nikšić) is the current Prime Minister of the state of Montenegro, within the state union of Serbia and Montenegro. He has served in this role since November 26, 2002, after resigning from the position of president the previous day. He had previously served as Montenegrin prime minister between 1991 and 1997.
Đukanović was born in Nikšić.
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Early days in politics
In his youth, he became involved with the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (in what was then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), before joining the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia in 1979.
Ascent to power in Montenegro
Actively tagging along with somewaht more seasoned Communist League members like Momir Bulatovic and Svetozar Marovic, Djukanovic was still only 26 years old when the trio gained power in Montenegro on January 10, 1989. They replaced the old Montenegrin communist guard by riding the wave of the so-called "anti-bureaucratic revolution", an administrative putsch within the Communists League orchestrated by Slobodan Milosevic and state security eschelons. The Montenegrin trio galvanized public opinion within the republic by organizing workers and busing them to capital Titograd (now changed back to Podgorica) to protest in front of the Assembly. Although many have since alleged about the shady role security apparatus played in this forced transfer of power (Slavko Perovic among many others)[1], it is undeniable that the trio capitalizied on the "young, good-looking, and smart" image (mladi, lijepi i pametni), which resonated with certain people.
Soon, the single-party system was abolished and the trio repackaged the Montenegrin branch of the League of Communists into the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (DPS).
Prime Minister of Montenegro 1991-1997
On February 15, 1991, his 29th birthday, Djukanovic rose to the post of Montenegrin Prime Minister for the first time with the blessings of then Serbian president Slobodan Milošević. At this time Djukanovic was the youngest prime minister in Europe. It was also the first salaried position in his life.
From 1991 until 1997 he was one of the chief supporters and executors of Slobodan Milošević's policies. Montenegro-wide roundup of Muslim refugees from Bosnia and their subsequent handover to forces of Bosnian Serbs happened while Djukanovic was Prime Minister. (Most of the prisoners were executed after the handover.)
Though a Marxist in his youth, Đukanović was reported to be "the kind of politician who has a picture of Margaret Thatcher above his desk". He was looked on favorably by foreign investors. In the 1990's he swiftly forced all socially owned (worker owned) companies into state ownership where they were sold to private foreign interests. (Blishen. Central European. May 1996.Vol.6,Iss.5)
In 1996, he began to fall out with Milošević, publicly blasting him in an interview for Belgrade weekly Vreme. At that time Milošević was facing harsh criticism in Serbia with student protests in the Winter of 1996/1997. This was in stark contrast to the stance of Momir Bulatović who in addition to being the President of Montenenegro also then headed the pro-Milošević Democratic Party of Socialists.
President of Montenegro 1997-2002
Soon, Bulatović's protégé would wrest control of both the party and the republic from his mentor.
First, Đukanović won a narrow majority support within the DPS party, a political leverage he then quickly used to cleanse it of all pro-Bulatović elements while simultaneously taking over state-controlled media and security apparatus with the help of his DPS ally Vukašin Maraš.
Then, in July of 1997, Đukanović contested Bulatović for the position of president of Montenegro. In the first round of elections, Đukanović lagged by roughly 2000 votes behind Bulatović (a staunch ally of Slobodan Milošević).
Three of the other candidates, who received 11,000 votes, gave support to Bulatović for the second round run-off. However, in second round vote seen as the most significant electoral victory in Montenegro's history by Đukanović's supporters, Đukanović won the elections by a margin of five thousand, after assembling 29,000 more votes than in the first round. There were some serious doubts about the regularity of this second round.
Although achieved in a highly disputable manner, this victory nevertheless cemented Đukanović's hold on Montenegro. Bulatovic, his one-time mentor, was completely squeezed out and now all institutions of power (DPS party, governement, parliament and President's office) were firmly in the hands of Djukanovic and his handpicked circle of associates.
Already distant from Milosevic and his regime, Djukanovic took this policy further, although assuring everyone that he sees the future of Montengro in the same country with Serbia. He very much tried to project an impression that whatever problems Montenegro he represents experienced within FR Yugoslavia had only to do with authoritarian Milosevic regime and not with Serbian democratic forces or the people of Serbia.
Sometime in mid-1998, the West also began to turn its back on Milosevic. Naturally, Đukanović became an automatic local ally in this policy shift. That was especially obvious after the end of NATO bombing when Yugoslavia got plunged into deep international isolation. Milosevic and other members of his clique were considered pariahs by every western government, so Đukanović became one of the few elected politicians within Yugoslavia they would openly communicate with. They were willing to overlook Đukanović's communist past, intial pro-war stance, and mounting evidence of criminal involvement, allowing him to regularly meet with Clinton administartion officials such as Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Secretary of Defense William Cohen and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger as well as British PM Tony Blair, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana all throughout this period.
However, this honeymoon effectively ended in October 2000 when Milosevic finally got ousted and DOS coalition led by Zoran Djindjic and Vojislav Kostunica took power in Belgrade.
Prime Minister again, 2002-
Since the downfall of Milošević, Djukanovic has struggled with Serbia over the issue of Montenegrin independence. His pro-independence policy resulted in a compromise some see as having been imposed by the European Union and its newly named foreign policy chief Javier Solana, with the creation of the new state union of Serbia and Montenegro (replacing the two-republic Federal Yugoslavia), but this also caused fallout with elements of his supporters who wanted him to push for full independence.
Ongoing criminal investigation in Italy
For years Milo Djukanovic has been accused of personal and political ties to wide spread tobacco smuggling in Montenegro throughout the 1990s.
According to a 240-page internal report compiled in 1997 by the Guardia di Finanza (Italy's tax and customs police), Montenegro was part of smuggling hierachy divided among various crime families connected to Sicilian mafia, Camorra and Sacra corona unita organized crime syndicates. The report claimed that tobacco smuggling in Europe caused an estimated $700 million annually in losses to governments and legitimate merchants.[2]
Various reports implicate Djukanovic in doing business with different Mafia bosses like Neapolitan Camorra's Ciro Mazzarella who was arrested in 1993 in Lugano.[3]
Since then, other mafia figures like Francesco Prudentino, Gerardo Cuomo, Filippo Messina, etc. connected to highest eshelons of Italian organized crime operated out of Montengro closely tied to Djukanovic's regime.[4]
In 1996, Italy's Anti-mafia Investigative Agency taped a telephone conversation between Cuomo and Santo Vantaggiato, a fugitive from Italian law hiding in Montenegro. The two men were discussing the election in Montenegro, and Cuomo boasted that he was close to senior Montenegrin politicians. He mentioned that if his "friends" got in, he would be "much stronger." Vantaggiato was murdered in Montenegro two years later in a mafia war.[5]
Most recently, in July 2003, the prosecutor's office in Naples named Djukanovic as a linchpin in the illicit trade which used Montenegro as a transit point for smuggling millions of cigarettes across the Adriatic sea into Italy and into the hands of the Italian mafia for distribution across the EU.[6]
Trivia
Milo Djukanović is a former basketball player, and as such he is a rather tall statesman (six feet two inches tall {1.88cm}).
| Presidents of Montenegro | 
|
|---|---|
| Nikola Miljanić | Miloš Rašović | Nikola Kovačević | Blažo Jovanović | Filip Bajković | Andrija Mugoša | Veljko Milatović | Vidoje Žarković | Veselin Đuranović | Marko Orlandić | Miodrag Vlahović | Branislav Šoškić | Radivoje Brajović | Božina Ivanović | Branko Kostić | Momir Bulatović | Milo Đukanović | Filip Vujanović |
