Bukovica engleski.qxd - Fond za humanitarno pravo

Bukovica engleski.qxd 15.3.2003 13:53 Page 22
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Bukovica
Together with the suspects they had ”liberated,“ the
crowd went to the local hotel where Dačević told them:
”The police have made another mistake. They came to
help us but in fact did the opposite. Those who are to
blame for this must leave town.“ 39
3.3.1. Dačević trial
Montenegrin Radicals staged yet more protests when
the trial of Dačević and the other Radicals opened
before the High Court in Bijelo Polje on 18 January
1993. Shouting their support for the accused, they
demanded that the court deliberate and rule independently,
meaning without ”anti-Serb“ influences, and
insisted that Dačević could not be tried because of his
legislative immunity. The judicial authorities pointed
out that immunity was not applicable in Dačević’s case
since the criminal charges against him had been
brought before he became a deputy. Furthermore, the
offenses with which he was charged carry a penalty of
over five years in prison, which ruled out the possibility
of his invoking parliamentary immunity.
The trial deeply divided the Montenegrin public. On one
side were members and supporters of the Radical and
Serb National Renewal parties and those Serbs and Montenegrins
who believed the trial was staged and that it
marked the beginning of a settling of scores between the
republic’s leaders and refractory Serbs in northern Montenegro.
On the other were the Liberals, Muslims in Bijelo
Polje and a proportion of the membership of the ruling
Democratic Party of Socialists, who considered that the
trial was a victory for justice and denoted that the rule of
law was finally being established in Montenegro.
39 Ibid.