Montenegro: Key Police Reforms Stalled

A government row over control of Montenegrin law enforcement and intelligence services is stalling much-needed police reforms.

Time is running out for the vital changes to be made law after parliament failed to pass draft proposals on July 30 - and analysts fear that legislation will not now be amended before an end of year deadline.

The crisis was sparked by an amendment proposed by the smaller of the two parties in the republic's ruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party, SDP, which demanded that police and intelligence service chiefs be nominated by parliament.

At present, such appointments are proposed by the government, where Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, can make decisions without consulting the SDP. In the assembly, however, the former would have to do so, as it depends heavily on the support of the latter's seven deputies.

Arguments over this section of the draft legislation mean the reforms - which were supposed to regulate the work of the police and provide the public with greater human rights protection - will have to wait.

If the two sides are not prepared to compromise, analysts warn, the reforms may miss a government deadline for passing legislation, which falls at the end of the year.

The draft legislation proposes the formation of a Civil Control Council - which would be staffed by representatives of the bar and medical associations, non-governmental organisations, NGOs, and local universities - and would be charged with monitoring police operations and improving civil rights.

There are also plans to make the police and intelligence services answerable to parliament. Security service officials would have to obtain permission from the supreme court for house searches, arrests or detention warrants - they don't at present.

And there are proposals for much greater scrutiny of the actions of security service personnel, especially in cases of alleged human rights abuses. Officers will be punished if they are deemed to have used excessive force in the course of their duties.

The reforms come in response to more than a decade of criticism from domestic and international agencies who feel current legislation gives too much power to the law enforcement bodies - which, they say, has resulted in a series of abuses, including illegal phone tapping, false arrest, politically-motivated prosecutions and torture.

Police minister Milan Filipovic has condemned the government wrangling for jeopardising the reforms his ministry has worked hard to prepare, telling the media on July 31 that he feared the process would now stall.

"It is irrelevant whether both or one party would control the nomination of the police boss and the intelligence chief," he argued, adding that Montenegro risks losing the trust and goodwill of the international community if the amendments are not passed.

Drazen Cerovic, president of the NGO the Association for Democracy and Rule of Law and assistant professor at Podgorica's law university, agreed that the infighting had serious implications for the country. "The proposed legislation is very good and it would be catastrophic if it were to remain in draft form only. Montenegro would be regarded as anti-reform," he warned.

However, for the time being, neither party appears to be willing to compromise. The SDP argues that parliament must have more control over the police and intelligence services, and freely admits that its main aim is to limit the authority enjoyed by Djukanovic's party. "We will not accept a single-party police," SDP deputy president Miodrag Ilickovic told the media on July 29.

Nedjeljko Rudovic is a journalist of the independent daily Vijesti from Podgorica.