Tobacco.org

• PM's testimony on smuggling and mafia links 'shameful' say opposition leaders 

The testimony by Montenegro's prime minister Milo Djukanovic (photo) on cigarette smuggling before Italian prosecutors in the southern Italian city of Bari was a shame for the country, opposition leaders said on Monday.

Djukanovic, who has been considered the absolute political leader of Montenegro for the past eighteen years, surprisingly appeared before Bari prosecutors last Friday, answering their questions for more than six hours. . . .

Djukanovic is being investigated for a multimillion-dollar cigarette smuggling operation to Italy and for offering free access and shelter to Italian mafia members in Montenegro ports between 1994 and 2002.

He has repeatedly denied the charges and the rumours that he was being investigated. . . .

Nebojsa Medojevic, the leader of the main opposition party, the Movement for Changes, said Djukanovic had shamed Montenegro by refusing to answer all of the 80 questions put by Bari prosecutors, invoking diplomatic immunity.

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Montenegro: Labour and Law Agency takes Tobacco Pogorica to court 

The agency for protection of workers' rights, Labour and Law (Rad i pravo) has announced instigation of legal proceedings against the Director of the Tobacco Company Pogorica (DKP) because he failed to implement the court decisions on payment of wages.The director of the agency, Radoje Lakusic, said that the wages of the workers had been unilaterally and illegally reduced, which is why the company's debt per worker amounted to EUR 2,000.

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Montenegro Votes, With Post-Serbia Path Unclear  

Montenegrins vote in parliamentary elections on Sunday and few have any doubts who will be the winner. For 15 years, Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, the longest-serving political leader in the Balkans, has dominated Montenegrin politics and is likely to continue to do so after the votes are counted late Sunday night. . . .

Montenegro’s involvement in organized crime has earned it one of the worst reputations in the Balkans.

Mr. Djukanovic’s government has long been at the center of corruption allegations, and it was named in a European lawsuit against American tobacco makers alleging collusion in cigarette smuggling.

Philip Morris agreed to pay $ 1.25 billion over 12 years in an out-of-court settlement with the European Union in July 2004, with the money earmarked for helping to crack down on the smuggling.

Mr. Djukanovic himself faces an arrest warrant in Italy, brought by a court there in 2004 in connection with the smuggling. He dismisses the charges as politically motivated.

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40% of Cigarettes in Macedonia Smuggled 

t. Smuggled cigarettes occupy 25% to 80% share from the markets of Southeastern European states, and 40% of the cigarettes at the Macedonian market had been imported illegally, a publication in today’s Romanian Gandul newspaper reads. According to the edition, Albania ranks first in smuggled cigarettes with a share of 80%, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina with 47%, Macedonia – 40%, Bulgaria – 38%, Serbia and Montenegro – 37%, and Romania and Croatia – 24%.

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Cigarette smuggling and contraband brought about the arrest of a successful businessman in Durres 

      Tirana, September 10 2005 – One of Durres' most successful businessmen, (the main port of the country) was arrested this last Friday under charges of being part of an international organized crime for tobacco’s smuggling in the country.

“Leonard Koka was arrested based on testimonies which proved he was head of an organized tobacco contraband smuggling from Montenegro to Albania”, chief prosecutor of Tirana Penal Court said. This arrest has been consideredThis was one of the most famous arrest even in Albania.

Koka, age 39, is also the brother of the mayor of Durrës, Mr. Lefter Koka, and considered by many a close friend of the ex-Prime Minister Fatos Nano.

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• A Non-Smokers’ Paradise? 

PODGORICA, Serbia and Montenegro--The inhabitants of the tiny Adriatic republic of Montenegro are not particularly well-known for a healthy lifestyle. But on 10 February, the country, which is thought to have one of Europe’s highest smoking rates, introduced tough anti-smoking legislation that puts it at the forefront of European anti-smoking efforts.

The new law bans smoking in almost all public locations . . .

Where smoking isn’t outright forbidden, businesses and public institutions are obliged to create separate smoking sections, and non-smoking signs must be prominently displayed. No longer will anyone under 18 be allowed to buy cigarettes.

The ministry of health said the measures, which were based on “modern solutions,” had been introduced in order to protect the public health. Health Minister Miodrag Pavlicic issued a stern warning that the ban would be “fully implemented”--not an easy task in a country where rules are regularly flouted and smoking is one of the few pleasures ordinary people can afford.

“If there is no fire there is no good conversation” goes an old Montenegrin saying.

That smoking is considered an essential part of everyday life in Montenegro (as elsewhere in the Balkans) is evident in the figures: around 250,000 of the republic’s 650,000 population are thought to be smokers. . . .

It is unclear quite how 111 inspectors will manage to monitor almost half the Montenegrin population.

Health inspector Bogdan Drobnjak says that, so far, most Montenegrins have respected the law and that they have not had many problems. He declined to say whether anyone had been charged with breaking the law, saying it was too early to say.

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• Montenegro: Smokers Keep on Puffing Away 

Janko Pekovic, the deputy head of a secondary school in Montenegro’s capital, Podgorica, tried to persuade two sanitary inspectors that a “no smoking” regulation imposed in Montenegro last August 10 had not been violated when the two inspectors walked into a cloud of smoke in the staff room to find two ashtrays full and a burning cigarette in one of them.

“We had some visitors and we couldn’t tell them not to smoke,” Pekovic told the inspectors.

“Don’t worry, we agreed this morning that a vacant classroom will be used as a smoking room from now on,” he added.

The two inspectors, Kemal Grbovic and Bogdan Drobnjak, have the unenviable task of enforcing the no smoking regulation all by themselves.

So far, they have got no further than Podgorica, as the health inspection service does not have enough money for them to extend their supervision to other parts of Montenegro.

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SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO: Rigorous Fines for Smoking in Public Places? 

If the Montenegrin Parliament adopts the law about limiting the use of tobacco products, smokers in that republic will be thrown into a regime of isolation.

A special smoking area will be designated for smokers. If anyone dares to light-up in a public place, he/she will have to pay a fine of 25. Newspapers and other media, according to the law regulation, won't be allowed to publish photographs, nor cartoons of persons who are smoking.

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SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO: Montenegrin Parliament Bans Smoking in Public 

The parliament in Montenegro, which has one of the highest rates of smoking in Europe, has passed a law banning smoking in public places. The new law also forbids tobacco advertising and the portrayal of smoking on television.

Montenegro is one of the last places one would expect to find a smoking ban. Together with its partner Serbia in the union of Serbia and Montenegro, it has the third highest rate of smoking in Europe, beaten by Turkey and Greece.

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Montenegro - no to smoking, yes to cigarette smuggling 

The Milan Corriere della Sera daily assessed on Thursday that the decision of Montenegrin parliament to ban smoking in public places was "surrealistic" and "perfidiously calculated" - given that it was made at the proposal of the government of Milo Djukanovic who - as it is said - is (or was) thought to be one of the most successful cigarette smugglers in the Balkans.

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• Montenegro bans smoking in public 

The parliament in Montenegro, which has one of the highest rates of smoking in Europe, has passed a law banning smoking in public places.

The new law also forbids tobacco advertising and the portrayal of smoking on television.

Montenegro is one of the last places one would expect to find a smoking ban.

Together with its partner Serbia in the union of Serbia and Montenegro, it has the third highest rate of smoking in Europe, beaten by Turkey and Greece.

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SCG signs WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control 

Serbia and Montenegro has signed the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and is soon to start preparations for the ratification of the document, Serbian Health Minister Tomica Milosavljevic said on Thursday.

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SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO: Excises Make Cigarettes And Gasoline More Expensive 

After the adoption of the Law on Excises, which the Government of Serbia, sent urgently to the Republic Parliament for consideration, the excises on gasoline and cigarettes will be increased, whereas the excises on certain domestic products and other fuels will be revoked.

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Djukanovic named in EU smuggling lawsuit: US report 

A lawsuit brought by the European Union against US tobacco company RJ Reynolds names Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic as a witting participant in a smuggling and money laundering scheme involving the sale of cigarettes to criminal networks paid for using money earned in drugs and arms smuggling, according to a US State Department report.

The lawsuit alleges that the Italian mafia established a transit company Montenegrin Tabak Transit (MTT) in the mid-1990s "under the official sanction of the Montenegrin Foreign Investment Agency and the special protection of Djukanovic," says the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.

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• Searching for Truth Behind the Smoke 

The haul: nearly 140 million cigarettes, exceeding the largest seizures known to the World Customs Organization.

Follow-up investigations by Japan Tobacco revealed that hundreds of millions of knock-off Monte Carlos already were in the market. The mysterious JTI and its affiliates had procured cigarettes from factories in Greece, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. They had obtained perfect copies of Monte Carlo packaging from a printer in Milan, Italy. . .

the people behind the JTI sound-alikes had persuaded the federal Intellectual Property Office in Belgrade to declare them owners of the Monte Carlo trademark. . . .

A legal battle quickly ensued. Some 20 lawsuits have been filed in at least four countries, and a criminal investigation of the circumstances surrounding the trademark ruling is underway in Belgrade.

If upheld, the Monte Carlo trademark ruling would give the sound-alikes control of a popular brand in the smokers' paradise of Serbia and Montenegro, as the former Yugoslavia now is called. These Monte Carlos also could leak across borders through exports, legal or otherwise, costing Japan Tobacco sales in other countries.

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