Montenegro marks its first year of independence
Monday, May 21, 2007
TINY Montenegro marks its first anniversary as a sovereign state today, but as divisions over its separation from its former partner Serbia remain deep, not everybody is celebrating.
Home to some 650,000 people, Montenegro, wedged between the mountains and the Adriatic Sea, voted in a historic referendum last May to break from Serbia, thus becoming the newest world state.
Until May 2006, Serbia and Montenegro were the only two former Yugoslav republics that had stayed together after Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia all went their own way in the early 1990s in a series of bloody wars.
"Montenegro's statehood has been justified in many ways during the past year and has opened up real European perspectives for the country," Dragan Kujovic, a top official of the republic's ruling DPS party told AFP.
In March, it took the first step towards European Union membership by initialing a stabilisation and association agreement, while Serbia has yet to resume talks with the European Union, suspended last year over its failure to arrest suspects wanted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal.
Last November, Montenegro also joined Nato's Partnership for Peace programme, a first step toward the alliance.
"Montenegro's strategic determination is European and Euro-Atlantic integration," Prime Minister Zeljko Sturanovic has said.
But opposition leaders, who wanted to retain the union with Serbia, argue that only the authorities have benefited from independence.
"Time has shown that the citizens have not gained what was promised an improvement in their poor economic and social standards," said Predrag Bulatovic, leader of the opposition pro-Serbian SNP party.
Even many of those who voted for independence share his views.
"My life has been the same as it was before, modest, without any improvement," high school teacher Marko Perovic told AFP.
His monthly salary of €300 (US$400, $610.480) "is not enough for the needs of my four-member family, not even the most basic needs".
"The fact that the government has not done much to be more successful on its pro-European path can only disappoint and depress us," said pro-independence opposition leader Miodrag Zivkovic.
Although inflation has been under control, falling below two per cent per month, a recent survey by the United Nations Development Programme showed that the gap between the rich and poor was the deepest in southeastern Europe.
AFP
Home to some 650,000 people, Montenegro, wedged between the mountains and the Adriatic Sea, voted in a historic referendum last May to break from Serbia, thus becoming the newest world state.
Until May 2006, Serbia and Montenegro were the only two former Yugoslav republics that had stayed together after Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia all went their own way in the early 1990s in a series of bloody wars.
"Montenegro's statehood has been justified in many ways during the past year and has opened up real European perspectives for the country," Dragan Kujovic, a top official of the republic's ruling DPS party told AFP.
In March, it took the first step towards European Union membership by initialing a stabilisation and association agreement, while Serbia has yet to resume talks with the European Union, suspended last year over its failure to arrest suspects wanted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal.
Last November, Montenegro also joined Nato's Partnership for Peace programme, a first step toward the alliance.
"Montenegro's strategic determination is European and Euro-Atlantic integration," Prime Minister Zeljko Sturanovic has said.
But opposition leaders, who wanted to retain the union with Serbia, argue that only the authorities have benefited from independence.
"Time has shown that the citizens have not gained what was promised an improvement in their poor economic and social standards," said Predrag Bulatovic, leader of the opposition pro-Serbian SNP party.
Even many of those who voted for independence share his views.
"My life has been the same as it was before, modest, without any improvement," high school teacher Marko Perovic told AFP.
His monthly salary of €300 (US$400, $610.480) "is not enough for the needs of my four-member family, not even the most basic needs".
"The fact that the government has not done much to be more successful on its pro-European path can only disappoint and depress us," said pro-independence opposition leader Miodrag Zivkovic.
Although inflation has been under control, falling below two per cent per month, a recent survey by the United Nations Development Programme showed that the gap between the rich and poor was the deepest in southeastern Europe.
AFP
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