Goran Žugić

Due to the tense political circumstances during which the murder occurred, some English-language Western media outlets like The Guardian and the Los Angeles Times 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[3] ahead of its first elections after the 78-day 1999 NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia.[4][5] Others, like the Italian Corriere della Sera 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".[6]

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".[7]

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.

Even EU foreign policy and security chief Javier Solana 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".[8]

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,[9] which, according to Matić, took place with CIA's organizational and logistical support.[10] At the same press-conference, Matić accused CIA of having an "organized group for the logistical preparation of terrorist acts on FR Yugoslavia's territory". Matić even named names, accusing James Schweigert (State Department's Balkans work group chief answering directly to James F. Dobbins, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs) of being the terrorist group's coordinator with Sean Berns (American office's chief in Dubrovnik) and Paul Davis (USAID worker in Dubrovnik) as his close accomplices.[11]

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 Nacional, all of which soon became known as the 'tobacco affair' or 'Nacional affair'.[14] In the series' very first article written by journalist Jasna Babić it was explicitly mentioned that Žugić was murdered by Beli Raspopović.[15] 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 election 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 Bulatović 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".[16]

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. 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, Vijesti, and NIN), Knežević now wrote a letter to Blic accusing Subotić, Jovica Stanišić 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 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.[17]

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.[17]