20. 12. 2004

STILL NO REACTION ON CURUVIJA REVELATIONS

BELGRADE, December 20, 2004 – Five days after B92 revealed that the Serbian Interior Ministry has known for more than a year who killed Slavko Curuvija, there has been no response from the authorities. Neither the ministry, the government nor the Special Prosecutor responded to the information revealed by the B92’s “Insider” that the killer was identified as Montenegrin crime figure Luka Pejovic. Director of the Institute for criminology and social researches Dobrivoje Radovanovic says that it is likely that the police will not release the name until there is material evidence available. However, he points out that Curuvija was murdered five and a half years ago, and that the police has concealed the information on his killer for a year. “It is too long for silence. It really needs very little time to gather the information required to arrest the suspects. But in this country politics is involved and we have already had a case where political deals have been made before some investigations, some murders, and unfortunately I think that politics is involved in this case”, said Radovanovic. Rajko Danilovic, a lawyer representing Jovo Curuvija, brother of the murdered publisher, says that he had already heard about Luka Pejovic but was not certain that police regarded the information as credible. He also says that this could be one lead of the investigation. “In any case, if the criminal police do not take matters into their own hands, and if they do not deal with it seriously and interrogate all members of the secret police and, now, probably, most employees of the Security Intelligence Agency, which was tailing Slavko Curuvija that day, about why the surveillance was called of immediately before the murder, I don’t believe that proceedings will be possible at all, we are still standing in the same place”, said Rajko Danilovic. While maintaining that the police need not release the name without evidence, Radovanovic insists that the Interior Ministry should respond in some way to the information published by B92. “I think that the police are obliged to do that, because the Curuvija murder wasn’t yesterday, the public is very confused about the case, which has gone on for years. This is unacceptable and I think that because of that they are obliged to respond to published information, whether it is correct or not”, he said. Lawyer Danilovic believes that there has been political interference in the case and that the truth about the murder of Curuvija will not be revealed until the political elements have been brought into the open. “Under the previous government I have to say that something was done, not enough, but it was done. But now the new government, which really pledged to resolve unresolved cases, has to be urged to react, because without political consensus a large number of secret police people cannot be questioned and they have certain information about this case”, Danilovic said.