Snubbing old ally stirs trouble

Montenegro takes a risk by alienating neighboring Serbia with its EU-approved recognition of Kosovo

Riot police block a street after clashes with several hundred angry pro-Serb opposition supporters in Montenegro’s capital, Podgorica, on Monday. Dozens of protesters were detained, according to local media reports.

Reuters - By Adam Tanner

PODGORICA - Like ex-lovers still on good terms, many Montenegrins remain passionate about neighboring Serbia, whose people share a common heritage and religion.

Yet in seeking fast European integration, Montenegro has on occasion angered its ally from Yugoslav times and earlier, most recently by recognizing the ex-Serbian province of Kosovo.

Recognition of Kosovo set off the biggest demonstrations in two years in the capital Podgorica on Monday. Protesters clashed with police and about 40 people were injured and 50 arrested, the interior minister said.

The leader of the Balkan country's largest opposition pro-Serb party, Andrija Mandic, also declared a hunger strike, a rare protest in the region, to try to force the government to withdraw recognition.

«A great number of people who live in Montenegro have roots in Kosovo,» an unshaven and exhausted Mandic said two days after starting his strike.

«It is a fight for civil rights. Most people in Montenegro do not support the decision to recognize.»

Montenegro waited with the announcement until a day after Serbia convinced a majority at the United Nations to ask the International Court of Justice whether Kosovo's independence was legal.

Montenegro's move, in parallel with recognition from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), soured Belgrade's UN victory.

«We've done this at a moment when we believed that no matter if we keep quiet or recognize, it will neither help nor jeopardize Serbia's impossible mission to take back something they have already lost,» Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic told parliament on Wednesday.

Montenegro, with a population of 650,000, is far from just another neighbor of Serbia.

It has given birth to some of recent history's most famous - and infamous - Serbs, including former Serbian autocrat Slobodan Milosevic and wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. The father of current Serbian President Boris Tadic hails from Montenegro.

Montenegro also has strong ties with Russians, who are major investors in a state best known abroad as an Adriatic summertime tourist destination. Yet it aspires to join the European Union and has already adopted the euro.

«It is painful but it's about time for all the countries in the former Yugoslavia to recognize each other and join the European Union and then be able to travel and trade freely,» said Vaselj Sinistaj, a member of parliament.

Throughout its history, Montenegro has wavered between the embrace of Serbia and its own path. In 2006, just 55 percent of citizens voting in a referendum said they wanted Montenegro to end its union with Serbia.

In recent weeks, Serbia lobbied Montenegro hard against recognizing Kosovo, to no avail, so it sent home the Montenegrin ambassador in protest.

«Serbia does not have the power any more to influence Montenegro as did in the past,» said Stevo Vucinic, a co-owner of a local television station and activist in the Montenegrin Orthodox Church.

«We now have two choices: to go east to the past, or west to the future.»

Most Montenegrin and foreign officials say they do not expect a repeat of Monday's violence. Opposition officials canceled a demonstration planned for yesterday to avoid stirring up more fighting after police banned the protest.

Diplomats say pro-Western gestures such as recognizing Kosovo will help the country on the path to the European Union.

«Montenegro has a chance to be ahead of the pack in European Union accession terms - if it tackles the things it needs to tackle, like organized crime,» said one ambassador.

PRISTINA (AFP) - Kosovo has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for equal status with Serbia before the latter rules on the legality of Pristina's independence declaration, the deputy prime minister said yesterday.

«The request, made by the foreign minister, is for Kosovo to be accepted as an equal party in accessing the court,» Deputy Prime Minister Hajredin Kuci told reporters after a government meeting. «We will respond depending on the court decision (to the request) but I think that there will be a fair and adequate representation,» Kuci added. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence from Serbia on February 17 and while the USA and many EU states were quick to recognize the new state, the move provoked outrage in Belgrade and Moscow.

Last week the UN General Assembly approved Serbia's resolution to seek a ruling from the Hague-based ICJ on the legality of the unilateral declaration of independence.