OKF Cetinje 2014.
Šeki Radončić – ANATOMY OF A PERSECUTION
INTRODUCTION
When a river of lies, insinuations and insults went against me, carrying logs and stones and covered with feces, I was afraid of the possibility to disappear in the mud without a trace. Almost three years later, this terrible flood would lose its power, returning to the natural riverbed and turning into a smelly stream. I collected this dirt with disgust, conducting its forensic analysis. Like an enthusiastic scientist, I stayed up late into the night, sometimes until dawn, studying this stench, and often going to sleep with the feeling that I got it under my skin. But I never gave up: while solving the puzzle I analyzed the collected material, commented upon it, drew patterns, and discovered formulas. I put the report on the results of my research between the covers of this book, calling it “The Anatomy of a Persecution”, alluding to “The Anatomy esson“ by Danilo Kiš who was, as we know, persecuted, labeled, and falsely accused for seven months because of “A Tomb for Boris Davidovič”, which eventually forced him to write the memorable work about his persecutors. Unlike Kiš, with my apologies for comparing with him, I was not persecuted for a book, but because of a documentary film, “A Hero of Our Time”. Assisted by the intellectual underground, town rumor, and the Internet, Podgorica’s self-proclaimed elite attacked the film even before I finished it and before they saw it: they accused me of denying my earlier works through it, betraying myself and them, called me a forger, a traitor, a regime man…
INDEPENDENT AND PRIVATE AT THE SAME TIME
[OR HOW MATHEMATICS PROFESSOR ENTERED MONTENEGRIN
JOURNALISM AND CREATED MEDIA MONOPOLY HAVING
UNDERSTOOD THE POWER OF MEDIA; ON THE SCHEME OF
HIS MEDIA POWER AND ON HOW HE MANIPULATES THE
PUBLIC AND HOW HIS MEDIA ARE KILLING PEOPLE]
While a local chamber trio performed works by Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Piazzolla at the main stage, four partners from the first row rubbed their hands in satisfaction: the concert was staged on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary since the foundation of their newspaper. “Vijesti daily is not only the first independent daily chronicler in the history of Montenegro but also an important generator that pushes the authorities and the entire political elite to change”, Miodrag Perović, the oldest founder of Vijesti and mathematics professor who quietly entered the Montenegrin journalism twenty years ago, humbly stated before the concert. Visionary Perović entered not only Montenegrin journalism but the legend as well. However, a member of the new class, Miško the Independent, wisely said nothing about the manner in which he and his partners, while engaged in the noble journalistic mission and fighting against totalitarian regimes, managed to move from their leased apartments to villas and castles, gaining enormous wealth in only fifteen years. He also kept silent about the guerilla way in which the four of them achieved the American Dream in the midst of poor Montenegro. Miško was likewise silent as regards the other co-founders and co-owners of Vijesti – journalists whom the four revelers brutally robbed of their founding shares, and then shamelessly accused, in front of the Montenegrin public, of falsely claiming to be the founders of Vijesti. The robbed journalists were not invited to attend the great anniversary. They were rejected as bad conscience. Listening to chamber music, Miško the Independent was slightly bored and often moved his unfashionable tie and untidy hair. The other co-founder, Šćeka the Independent, often had to loosen the belt of his trousers, as it was pressed by the big belly. The third partner, Željko the Independent, the author of the best panegyric for disguised fascist Boris Tadić, and of the worst text on opera in the history of Montenegrin journalism, turned around him, not believing that the great hall of the National Theatre was empty, with only about thirty guests, mostly Vijesti journalists. Željko expected the hall to be packed with people on this independence celebration, anticipating the presence of Montenegrin elite, whereas in reality it all resembled a commemoration. The fourth partner, Ljubiša the independent, twisted in his chair as if in someone else’s skin, acting like he did not belong to that company, as if he had been brought there under a severe threat. I am sure (I have known him for over twenty years) Miško the Independent spent those moments counting how much money had spawned for these fifteen years in his bank account that was once miserable. Then again, perhaps he was counting how much money he still lacked to become really rich. This is a calculation with which Miško was simply obsessed. The mathematics professor would put together the prices of magnificent houses, cars, yachts, airplanes, servants, security, and God-knows-what-else that any rich man should have. I remember once, during a gathering in the newsroom of Monitor, Miško stopped at a figure of about 150 million dollars. This was enough. Miško who, just as Scrooge McDuck, had a dollar sign in his eyes, also counted how many generations should pass in order for his heirs to become real aristocracy. “It will be only our third generation that will know to behave and live like aristocracy”, estimated missionary Miško. Yet, Miško’s hairstyle, a tie from the Brezhnev era and his posture were saying something else: regardless of the huge amounts of money, even the eighth generation of distinguished professor’s heirs will struggle to catch up with the European aristocracy, if they turn out to be like him. Their blood would not turn blue even if ink was injected into their veins.
Šeki Radončić
A Note about the Author
ŠEMSUDIN ŠEKI RADONČIĆ (1957, Berane) is a journalist, writer, screenwriter, author and producer of documentaries, human rights advocate. The first journalist in the history of Montenegro to be convicted of defamation – sentenced to two months in prison and one-year suspended sentence, for texts in which he described how JNA commanders destroyed and looted Dubrovnik and its surroundings. Due to a series of articles on political trials in Montenegro, his mother and wife were shot at in 1994, by unknown perpetrators. After a series of articles on the deportation of Bosnian refugees from Montenegro, a bomb was thrown at Radončić’s house in Sarajevo, while his car was demolished a few months later in Podgorica. For many years, Šeki Radončić served as the Vice-President of the Independent Union of Professional Journalists of Montenegro. He is one of the founders of the Montenegrin Helsinki Committee. He has won the prestigious human rights award by the Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), as well as numerous awards for his documentaries. He is the President of NGO Witness – Sarajevo.
Published books
Black Box / Police Torture in Montenegro from 1992 to 1996 (1996)
In Private (1999)
Black Box 2 / Police Torture in Montenegro from 1992 to 1999 (2003)
Behind the Mask (2003)
Fatal Freedom / Deportation of Bosnian Refugees from Montenegro (2005)
Miško Kesedžija and His Dogs / An Essay on the Montenegrin Evil (2012), co-authored with Marko Vešović
Series of Articles
The Circle is Tightening – a study on years-long hiding of Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić
One Hundred Years in Prison – political processes in Montenegro
Documentaries
Fugitives (2004), an investigative journalist and co-writer
Life and Adventures of Radovan Karadžić (2005),
an investigative journalist and co-writer
Carnival (2006), a co-writer
Esma (2008), a writer and author
A Hero of Our Time (2011), a writer and author