Goran Žugić
Encyclopedia
Goran Žugić is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
, FR Yugoslavia) was a Montenegrin policeman and state security operative. He was also the personal aide and a close friend to Montenegrin statesman Milo Đukanović.
Due to his position as the national security adviser to Montenegrin president Milo Đukanović, Žugić's May 2000 assassination in Podgorica
Podgorica
Podgorica , is the capital and largest city of Montenegro.Podgorica's favourable position at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and the meeting point of the fertile Zeta Plain and Bjelopavlići Valley has encouraged settlement...
sparked Balkan
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
-wide reaction from political circles. The investigation carried out by the Montenegrin police never produced a suspect. In the years since, a lot of additional information and speculation has surfaced about his role in the Montenegrin state apparatus and alleged involvement in cigarette smuggling.
Early life and career
Born and raised in the northern Bosnian city of TuzlaTuzla
Tuzla is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the time of the 1991 census, it had 83,770 inhabitants, while the municipality 131,318. Taking the influx of refugees into account, the city is currently estimated to have 174,558 inhabitants...
to Montenegrin parents (father Vukola from Žabljak
Žabljak
Žabljak is a small town in northern Montenegro. It has a population of 1,937.Žabljak is the seat of the municipality...
and mother Poleksija Đurović from a village near Danilovgrad
Danilovgrad
Danilovgrad is a town in central Montenegro. It has a population of 5,208 . It is situated in the Danilovgrad Municipality which lies along the main route between Montenegro's two largest cities, Podgorica and Nikšić.The town of Danilovgrad is located in the fertile valley of the Zeta River,...
) who worked as school teachers, Žugić graduated from the University of Sarajevo
University of Sarajevo
The University of Sarajevo is the first university in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was originally established in 1531 as a Madrasah or Islamic Law college, with a modern university being established and expanded on top of that in 1949. Today, with 23 faculties and around 55,000 enrolled students, it...
's Faculty of Law. In 1988 he found employment at SR Bosnia-Herzegovina
Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina , known until 1963 under the name of People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
's Secretariat of the Interior (SUP), before advancing to the position of sector chief at state security's Tuzla branch in 1991.
The war
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
soon broke out in Bosnia, and Žugić family, including 29-year-old Goran and his brother Igor, fled to Montenegro. Goran Žugić's law enforcement career continued in the coastal town of Herceg Novi
Herceg Novi
Herceg Novi is a coastal town in Montenegro located at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor and at the foot of Mount Orjen. It is the administrative center of the Herceg Novi Municipality with around 33,000 inhabitants...
where in 1992 he became the assistant chief at the local police branch (Centar za javnu bezbjednost Herceg Novi). He soon got promoted to the main chief role.
Following 1995 turmoil at the Podgorica police branch that prompted removal of Interior Minister Nikola Pejaković
Nikola Pejaković
- Kolja i Smak Bijelog Dugmeta :The songs Pejaković had composed during the mid-1980s were released on his debut album Mama, nemoj plakati , released by System Records in 2001. Influenced by diverse range genres and crossing them with witty and a bit vulgar lyrics, Pejaković described his musical...
, Žugić got his next big promotion, moving up to capital Podgorica where he continued in the police chief role at the Centar bezbjednosti Podgorica. In addition to the capital city, the police branch Žugić was now heading also had jurisdiction over the towns of Cetinje
Cetinje
Cetinje , Цетиње / Cetinje , Italian: Cettigne, Greek: Κετίγνη, Ketígni) is a town and Old Royal Capital of Montenegro. It is also a historical and the secondary capital of Montenegro , with the official residence of the President of Montenegro...
, Danilovgrad
Danilovgrad
Danilovgrad is a town in central Montenegro. It has a population of 5,208 . It is situated in the Danilovgrad Municipality which lies along the main route between Montenegro's two largest cities, Podgorica and Nikšić.The town of Danilovgrad is located in the fertile valley of the Zeta River,...
, and Kolašin
Kolašin
Kolašin , is a town in northern Montenegro. It has a population of 2,989 .Kolašin is the centre of the municipality and unofficial centre of Morača region, named after Morača River....
. Once there, Žugić, along with Montenegin police, was loyal to Prime Minister Milo Đukanović and remained so as the power struggle between Đukanović and president Momir Bulatović
Momir Bulatovic
Momir Bulatović , formerly served as a Yugoslavian and Montenegrin politician. Bulatović became federal President of Montenegro while Montenegro was part of a Yugoslav federation, and also Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
began. Žugić had a key organizational role after Đukanović got inaugurated as the president of Montenegro following the controversial 1997 presidential elections and violent protests by Bulatović's loyalists in January 1998.
For that, as well as for continued loyalty to Đukanović, Žugić received the biggest career promotion when Đukanović named him as his national security adviser. By now well connected and highly placed within the regime, Žugić was said to wield a lot of power and influence on various matters going on in Montenegro at the time such as widespread cigarette smuggling. He was also said to be a close friend of controversial businessman and accused smuggler Stanko "Cane" Subotić.
Death
On Wednesday night, May 31, 2000, past 23:00 CETCentral European Time
Central European Time , used in most parts of the European Union, is a standard time that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time . The time offset from UTC can be written as +01:00...
, Žugić parked his Audi A6
Audi A6
The Audi A6 is an executive car marketed by the German automaker Audi AG, now in its fourth generation. As the successor to the Audi 100, the A6 is manufactured in Neckarsulm, Germany – and is available in saloon, and wagon configurations, the latter marketed by Audi as the Avant.All generations...
close to his apartment building at 7 Save Kovačevića Boulevard in Podgorica. He got out of the vehicle and walked over towards the building entrance when he got approached from behind by a single person who killed him with a succession of shots to the head from an automatic weapon.
Žugić's assassination happened to occur at an extremely tense time in the relations of Montenegro and Serbia (federal units within FR Yugoslavia at the time) with federal Yugoslav president Milošević (not supported by the West at the time and accused of war crimes by The Hague tribunal) and Montenegrin president Đukanović (openly supported by the West at the time) locked in an ongoing power struggle. It also came as the latest in a wave of assassinations of prominent mobsters and high political and politically connected figures in FR Yugoslavia (Žugić's was among the first to take place on the territory of Montenegro). It also happened to occur days before the June 11th local municipal elections in Herceg Novi
Herceg Novi
Herceg Novi is a coastal town in Montenegro located at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor and at the foot of Mount Orjen. It is the administrative center of the Herceg Novi Municipality with around 33,000 inhabitants...
and Podgorica
Podgorica
Podgorica , is the capital and largest city of Montenegro.Podgorica's favourable position at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and the meeting point of the fertile Zeta Plain and Bjelopavlići Valley has encouraged settlement...
.
Press reaction
Due to the tense political circumstances during which the murder occurred, some English-language Western media outlets like The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
were quick to indirectly point out a possible connection to similar events in Serbia at the time (Serbia was going through its own wave of assassinations in the first part of 2000). They went as far as to cautiously suggest Žugić's assassination was an attempt by Belgrade to destabilize Montenegro ahead of its first elections after the 78-day 1999 NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia
1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was NATO's military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The strikes lasted from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999...
. Others, like the Italian Corriere della Sera
Corriere della Sera
The Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...
went even further, saying that "Montenegro and Serbia have for months been at the edge of separation" and that "this tragic event brought the possibility of a compromise between them down to a minimum" before ominously exclaiming: "If another war flares up in the Balkans we will have known its start date in advance as well its detonator".
Montenegrin official reaction
The reaction of certain Montenegrin officials went along the similar dramatic lines. Speaking on the day after the assassination, President of the republic Milo Đukanović said:"Whoever targeted Goran Žugić committed a terrorist act against democracy in Montenegro and against the security of Montenegrin citizens. And let me deliver a message to those who might be happy about this crime that Montenegro will not become hesitant nor discouraged from continuing with the state policy that will guide the republic along the path of peace into the company of developed European countries as a stable, democratic, and open multiethnic society".
Montenegirn Minister of Justice Dragan Šoć from the pro-Serbian People's Party was more restrained: "We are dealing with a murder like those we have seen outside Montenegro (namely in Serbia) and that is disturbing. I cannot give you any details because that would be speculating on motives". While leading pro-Đukanović regime Podgorica lawyer Ranko Vukotić went the furthest, arguing that the killing was part of a "deliberate campaign" to destabilize Montenegro, presumably by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević and his Montenegrin supporters.
EU reaction
Even EU foreign policy and security chief Javier SolanaJavier Solana
Francisco Javier Solana de Madariaga, KOGF is a Spanish physicist and Socialist politician. After serving in the Spanish government under Felipe González and Secretary General of NATO , he was appointed the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Secretary...
felt a need to react, "strongly condemning the, it is becoming increasingly obvious, politically motivated murder of high Montenegrin official Goran Žugić". "EU condemns any attempt to undermine the reform process in Montenegro and to undermine the preparations for the upcoming local elections".
Belgrade's official reaction
Milošević's regime in Belgrade wasn't without reaction either with controversial Yugoslav federal Minister of Information Goran Matić on June 6, 2000 directly accusing Montenegrin security officials Vukašin Maraš and Darko "Beli" Raspopović of being involved in Žugić's murder, which, according to Matić, took place with CIA's organizational and logistical support. At the same press-conference, Matić accused CIA of having an "organized group for the logistical preparation of terrorist acts on the FR Yugoslavia's territory". Matić even named names, accusing James Schweigert (State Department's Balkans work group chief answering directly to James F. DobbinsJames F. Dobbins
James Francis Dobbins, Jr. is a diplomat and former United States Ambassador to the European Union and Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs . He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy....
, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs) of being the terrorist group's coordinator with Sean Berns (American office's chief in Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
) and Paul Davis (USAID worker in Dubrovnik) as his close accomplices.
Funeral
Žugić was buried at Podgorica's Čepurci cemetery on Friday, June 2, 2000 with highest Montenegrin regime officials, including Milo Đukanović, Svetozar MarovićSvetozar Marovic
Svetozar Marović ; born March 31, 1955) is a lawyer and a Montenegrin politician. He was the only president of Serbia and Montenegro...
, and, Filip Vujanović
Filip Vujanovic
Filip Vujanović is a Montenegrin politician who, since 2003, has served as the President of Montenegro. He is the first President of Montenegro since it split ties with Serbia and became an independent nation in June 2006...
in attendance. The task of speaking for the regime went to its officials Miomir Mugoša
Miomir Mugoša
Miomir Mugoša , MD is a Montenegrin physician and politician. He has been mayor of Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, since 2000....
and Miodrag "Miško" Vuković. Speaking about Žugić, Mugoša said: "He was brave and decisive when it came to defending Podgorica and the peace of its citizens, but wise when it came to controlling and calming the various divisions, so inherently traditional in our society... Thanks to him, our city had the reputation of being secure, and remained so. Nobody will make us tentative and indecisive, we won't be afraid of any criminal hand such as the one that gunned down Goran Žugić while aiming at Podgorica and Montenegro". Vuković added that "gunshots at Goran Žugić are shots at all of us who see Montenegro the same way he did, gunshots at him are shots at Montenegrin democracy, at our future, at our joint living, humanly, and stately ideal".
Aftermath, speculation, and accusations
Since the Montenegrin police never even produced a suspect, let alone arrest anyone in connection with Žugić's assassination, the crime became a subject of rife public debate in the years since, especially in light of the fact that it turned out to be only the first in a series of assassinations of prominent individuals in Montenegro and those with ties to the tiny republic. Less than five months after Žugić, Vanja Bokan, prominent alleged cigarette smuggler with connections to Montenegrin regime, was killed in AthensAthens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. In January 2001, Žugić's police colleague Beli Raspopović was gunned down in broad daylight on a Podgorica street. Couple of months after that, Blagota "Baja" Sekulić, another operative with ties to Montenegrin regime, was murdered in Budva
Budva
Budva is a coastal town in Montenegro. It has around 15,000 inhabitants, and it is the centre of municipality...
. In another similarity to Žugić's murder no suspects were produced for these murders nor was anyone arrested.
2001 Nacional affair
In May 2001, Žugić's name featured prominently in the series of articles on Stanko Subotić and cigarette smuggling through Montenegro in Croatian weekly news magazine NacionalNacional (weekly)
Nacional is a Croatian weekly newsmagazine published in Zagreb.-History:Nacional was started in 1995 by Denis Kuljiš, Ivo Pukanić and other journalists dissatisfied with the editorial policies of Croatian weekly newspaper Globus. Both publications were hostile to the ruling HDZ government...
, all of which soon became known as the 'tobacco affair' or 'Nacional affair'. In the series' very first article written by journalist Jasna Babić it was explicitly mentioned that Žugić was murdered by Beli Raspopović. In the interview for the magazine couple of issues later, Srećko Kestner, former Subotić's aide who got into the cigarette smuggling business through Vanja Bokan, named Žugić as an important cog in 'tobacco mafia':
"I met Žugić not too long after Subotić got into the business. At the time Žugić just got named to the post of Podgorica police chief. His units were under direct orders from Đukanović, providing secure escort for trucks full of cigarettes to make sure they safely leave Montenegro before entering Serbia. He also gave me police escort when some local criminals tried to extort me - 11 policemen from Podgorica police intervention unit were with me at all times. In return I was buying vehicles for Podgorica police.... For his services and involvement in smuggling, Žugić was getting paid DM100,000 per month.... When I partly financed Milo Đukanović's 1997 presidential electionMontenegrin presidential election, 1997Presidential elections were held in Montenegro in 1997.-I round:#Momir Bulatović: 147.610 - 47,44#Milo Đukanović: 145.348 - 46,71#Others: 13.534 - 4,35-II round:#Milo Đukanović: 174.745 - 50,79#Momir Bulatović: 169.257 - 49,20...
campaign with some $3-4 million, I submitted the money through Žugić, and therefore I never met Đukanović face to face. When his political opponent Momir BulatovićMomir BulatovicMomir Bulatović , formerly served as a Yugoslavian and Montenegrin politician. Bulatović became federal President of Montenegro while Montenegro was part of a Yugoslav federation, and also Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
called Đukanović out publicly on television for having his campaign financed by a 'cigarette smuggler Kestner', Đukanović responded that he never even met me, which was actually true".
Ratko Knežević's accusations in 2009
On August 12, 2009, in a lengthy letter to Belgrade high circulation daily Blic, former Montenegrin regime insider Ratko Knežević who was the chief of Montenegrin trade mission in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
during the mid 1990s as well as another one of Milo Đukanović's close friends, gave a detailed account of the information he claims to know about the various assassinations in Montenegro in terms of who planned, ordered and committed them. It's been speculated before that Knežević was the unnamed source for many of the claims in Nacional, however this was the first time he personally named names and talked directly about alleged crimes.
Writing in response to Stanko Subotić's denials of smuggling (that which Knežević accused him of in July 2009 interviews to Blic
Blic (newspaper)
Blic is a tabloid daily newspaper in Serbia owned by Ringier AG group from Switzerland.Started in 1996, it has gone through a slight format change during the mid 2000s to include more in-depth coverage, but it is still, as its name aptly suggest, a paper devoted to quick, concise,...
, Vijesti
Vijesti
Vijesti is a Montenegrin daily newspaper.The paper is published and managed by an entity called Daily Press d.o.o. - a limited liability company based in Podgorica...
, and NIN
NIN (magazine)
NIN is a weekly newsmagazine published in Belgrade, Serbia. Its name is an acronym for Nedeljne informativne novine which roughly translates into Weekly Informational Newspaper....
), Knežević now wrote a letter to Blic accusing Subotić, Jovica Stanišić
Jovica Stanišic
Jovica Stanišić is a former head of the State Security Service now BIA within the Serbian Ministry of the Interior. He is facing trial at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for his role in the wars in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina...
and Đukanović of ordering the murder of smuggler Vanja Bokan as far back as 1997 and originally getting Serbian mobster and state security operative Željko "Arkan" Ražnatović
Željko Ražnatovic
Željko Ražnatović , widely known as Arkan was a Serbian career criminal and later a paramilitary leader who was notable for organizing and leading a paramilitary force in the Yugoslav Wars...
to organize it. He also accused them of ordering and signing off on Radovan "Badža" Stojičić's assassination in April 1997, which according to Knežević was organized and carried out by Beli Raspopović and his unit.
Meanwhile, according to Knežević, the preparations for Bokan's murder stalled because Arkan had more pressing concerns at the time so the logistical part of the job went to Goran Žugić who in the meantime rose to be one of Đukanović's most trusted confidants and partners in cigarette smuggling while the immediate assassin job went to Baja Sekulić - thus by 1999/2000, the Bokan murder was logistically planned out and prepared. However, according to Knežević, this didn't sit well with Beli Raspopović who was by this time completely squeezed out of the cigarette smuggling profit sharing and furthermore saw Žugić rise to the role he once occupied - regime's top security operative. Raspopovic thus, according to Knežević, decided to strike and take out both Žugić and Sekulić. According to Knežević, Raspopović managed to kill Žugić but couldn't pull off the same with Sekulić who in the meantime killed Bokan in Greece in October 2000 and later managed to eliminate Raspopović in Podgorica through a paid assassin brought in from Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
.
Personal
Žugić was married to Nataša who worked in the pharmaceutical industry. They have two children: son Andrej who was three years old at the time of his father's assassination and daughter Tara who was 11 months old.External links
- Skoro deceniju nakon ubistava visokih policijskih funkcionera Darka Raspopovića i Gorana Žugića istraga nije makla od početka, Vijesti, August 19, 2009
- Crnogorski policajci demantuju zvanične tvrdnje iz Ministarstva unutrašnjih poslova: Foto-robot ubica Žugića i Raspopovića i dalje stoji u fioci, Blic, August 20, 2009