Montenegro assembly scraps socially-owned property

By Ljubinka Cagorovic, Reuters, 17 November 1999

In future, as the following amply demonstrates, for such noble imponderables as freedom, democracy, pluralism, rule of law, etc. simply substitute the word plunder and you'll be able to de-Orwellize NATO and its controlled media's terminology.

Compare to the fact that all 150 or so factories, warehouses, power grids, tv stations and office buildings bombed by NATO planes earlier this year were state-owned. All. As publically-owned facilities they were portrayed in our corporate media as Milosevic's assets, hence legitimate military targets.

By way of contrast, reminds one of Allied bombers in World War II avoiding Standard Oil and other Western-owned petroleum facilities in Romania, etc.

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PODGORICA, Nov 17 (Reuters)—Montenegro's parliament on Wednesday passed legislation abolishing so-called socially-owned property amid opposition claims that it had kept a monopoly over state assets.

The law, passed by a majority vote of 38 deputies of the three ruling coalition parties, should not affect companies which had already transformed their ownership from socially-owned to private or state.

Socially-owned denotes property held in tandem by workers and the state in a socialist society.

The parliament declared state ownership over all financial property, securities, land, woods, waters, mineral and other natural resources acquired through the work of state bodies, local government institutions and public utilities.

All property in which the Montenegrin government and local governments have ever invested is now owned by the state.

This bill puts an end to socially-owned property and the main aim is to establish a market value for any property, an equality of all forms of property and to open up ... a link with developed Europe, said Savo Markovic, deputy of the People's Party which is in the governing coalition.

The bill also established state ownership over Montenegrin airports in Podgorica, Tivat, Zabljak and Berane, as well as property resulting from the division of assets of the former, larger Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The adoption of this law tests the readiness of the government and the society for reforms and democratisation, said Zarko Rakcevic, leader of the Socialdemocratic Party (SDP).

The SDP, together with the Democratic Party of Socialists run by President Milo Djukanovic and the People's Party, form the ruling reformist coalition of Montenegro, a small coastal republic in federal Yugoslavia.

Western-leaning Montenegro, increasingly at odds with its leftist sister republic Serbia over their joint future, has already cut many ties with Belgrade and the latest law stirred more criticism from the local pro-Serb opposition.

You are only repeating your stories about reforms and falsely presenting yourselves as democrats and reformists around the world, Miroslav Vickovic of the opposition Liberal Alliance said, addressing the government.

Passing a law on state property, without identifying what (the value) is, is no mistake. You are doing this deliberately ... to preserve a decisive influence on wealth and to maintain yourselves in power, he said.