Montenegrin Reactions to Kostunica's Offer

No Foundation for a Dialogue

The platform of the President of FRY will not be a good foundation for the dialogue on the future of Serbia and Montenegro - it is believed in Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists and Rakcevic's Social Democratic Party; the Liberal League also rejected Kostunica's offer. For Bulatovic's Socialist People's Party and Soc's People's Party, though, the platform of the President of FRY is "a good solution".

AIM Podgorica, January 14, 2001

In the middle of last week the President of FRY Vojislav Kostunica sent the Platform for Redefining Relations between Serbia and Montenegro to Montenegrin authorities. Kostunica's proposal on the so-called functional federation is the reply to the Platform of the Government of Montenegro with which Podgorica seeks independence and international recognition for both remaining Yugoslav republics. Instead of independence of the two republics, the Yugoslav President insists on international sovereignty and preservation of the joint state. Kostunica's proposal caused stormy reactions not only of the ruling, but also of the opposition circles that support independence.

High official of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), Milica Pejanovic Djuricic, described Kostunica's document as his personal initiative backed by the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS). The text was characterised more as a draft than as a well-founded document. The Platform has not gone beyond the inheritance of Milosevic's era and it cannot bring a lasting solution for the relations between Belgrade and Podgorica. "It is in fact the old 1992 constitutional and legal solution which is an attempt to turn time backwards and ignore the new facts in the relations between Montenegro and Serbia". According to Pejanovic-Djuricic, to speak about a federation nowadays when it has historically been proved that two such unequal entities could not be preserved as equals, is just an attempt to establish new paternalism towards Montenegro. She reminds Kostunica that he himself just six months ago denied the existence of the federal state and that he used to say that "the intention of the federal Constitution was to feign that something - the federal state - exists although it does not exists at all".

The proposal of the President of the FRY was also sharply attacked by Miodrag Ilickovic, the Vice-President of the SDP which is the other member of the ruling coalition. “We have lived to see somebody who is giving Montenegro, as a state, less rights than Slobodan Milosevic. The Platform which has arrived from Belgrade is a platform for the abolishment of Montenegro, because under the name of a functional federation it is an offer of a unitarian state”, says Ilickovic. He reproaches the President of the FRY for dreaming dreams of Greater Serbia and offering Montenegro resolutions from the Constitutional coup of July 6, which as Ilickovic reminds, Kostunica himself had called banditry at the time.

For the leader of the Liberal League, Miodrag Zivkovic, the proposal of Vojislav Kostunica also leads towards a unitary state and elimination of Montenegro. Zivkovic appealed on Montenegrin authorities to immediately send a negative reply to the President of the FRY about the Platform which is unacceptable “both for Montenegrin national and state interests, and for the majority of the citizens, because it denies the possibility of independent and internationally recognised Montenegro”.

The experts in Montenegro mostly criticised the proposal of the President of the FRY. According to their assessments, his platform does not ensure even formal equality of Montenegro in the community with Serbia. According to Kostunica's proposal, the Chamber of Citizens of the Federal Assembly would be formed according to the principle one man one vote, which means that the initiatives of the smaller Republic could always be outvoted by the bigger Serbia. Professor of the Law School Milan Popovic speaks of Kostunica's proposal as “continuation of Milosevic's habit to ignore the majority political will of Montenegro”. And the majority according to Popovic, after ten-year negative experience in the community with Serbia, now demands independent Montenegro, which is disregarded by Kostunica and offers solutions which give Montenegro even less rights than guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution of the FRY.

There are, however, those who are satisfied. Two Montenegrin parliamentary parties, the SNP and the People's Party, welcomed the Platform of the President of the FRY with relief. The People's Party has recently stepped out of Montenegrin Government because the official Podgorica insists on international recognition of Montenegro. Since the victory of DOS and Vojislav Kostunica this party is increasingly turning towards Belgrade. Therefore, it is not surprising that for the President of the NS, Dragan Soc, Kostunica's offer is “a good proposal for talks” which ensures international sovereignty to the union of Montenegro and Serbia.

Representatives of the once pro-Milosevic's SNP have also backed the document offered by Vojislav Kostunica. For Vice-President of the SNP, Predrag Bulatovic, the proposal from Belgrade is acceptable, because for this party the most important thing is preservation of the common state. The President of the SNP, Momir Bulatovic also supported Kostunica's Platform, but he underlined that “the SNP would soon come out in public with a document on harmonisation of relations between Serbia and Montenegro in the FRY”.

It is clear that the supporters of the SNP and the NS will try to politically act in the direction pointed out by the President of the FRY, Vojislav Kostunica. Whether that means future coalition cooperation of the Socialist People's Party and the People's Party – still remains to be seen. According to the sources from the leadership of the People's Party, a formal coalition of the SNP and the NS is hardly possible.

On the other hand, the Yugoslav President did not wait for long to reply to the critics from Podgorica. He called his document “the most favourable solution that one can hardly find any argument that speaks against it, except a partial and selfish one”. According to Kostunica, the Platform he offered to Podgorica guarantees international legal sovereignty of the FRY, and in the common state “both Serbia and Montenegro would to a large extent achieve their statehood”. Yugoslav President added that his document was “not Holy Scripture”, and that it would be discussed by the DOS and by political parties in Montenegro.

Judging by the initial reactions, the majority of the DOS leaders will back the proposal of the President of the FRY because the idea of independent Montenegro is not approved of in Serbia. Lonely voices of support are arriving to Podgorica from Voivodina. Nenad Canak, Chairman of the Assembly of Voivodina and one of the leaders of the DOS, criticised Kostunica's proposal on a functional federation as unrealistic. He advocated the right of the Montenegrins to their own state and supported the Platform of the Government of Montenegro.

It is, therefore, clear that two quite contrary proposals on relations between Serbia and Montenegro are on the table. It is difficult to believe that a compromise is possible. The clear message from Podgorica is that there can be no compromise about the international recognition of Montenegro and that it is just a matter of time when the referendum on the state status will be scheduled. On the other hand, Belgrade has started, internally and internationally, the struggle for preservation of the common state.

The international circumstances do not work in favour of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic who insists on the independence of the smaller Republic, but he is encouraged by public opinion polls. According to one which was carried out in December, the Montenegrin President is the politician the Citizens of Montenegro trust the most. According to the same poll, although the referendum campaign still has not officially started, more than fifty per cent of the subjects declared themselves in favour of independent Montenegro, and slightly more than 30 per cent are in favour of preservation of the union with Serbia.

Experts for public opinion especially stress that the number of supporters is growing despite the changes of the regime in Belgrade. They stress that this trend will continue especially because of the lack of understanding for the proposals coming from Podgorica.

Milka TADIC MIJOVIC

(AIM)