"MONTENEGRO POLICY ON KOSOVO ISSUE"

By Zoran Culafic

The new UN Head in Kosovo, SRSG Soren Jessen-Petersen has said the concept of Dialogue must include all of the regional partners - including neighboring Montenegro.

As pre-election activity begins both in Belgrade and in Kosovo, UNMIK On-Air spoke to leading members of the Montenegrin political scene in the capital city, Podgorica, to gain a clearer understanding of their stance towards Kosovo.

Hello and welcome. This is UNMIK On-Air.

Petersen - “We need to re-open the dialogue Belgrade - Pristina. But, we also need closer involvement of other states in the region - Macedonia, Albania also should be involved in all discussions linked to Kosovo and for the same region I will be visiting Macedonia and Albania next week. I will also later be going to Montenegro.”

Jessen-Petersen speaking at a press conference during his first visit to Belgrade in late August. Although he made mention of an upcoming September visit to Montenegro, political observers are unclear of the role that Montenegro will play in Kosovo’s political process.

Miodrag Vukovic is a senior Government official and one of the closest associates of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic. According to Vukovic, the Kosovo issue is an old issue that was handled poorly in past decades. He says Montenegrin politicians always insisted on a democratic handling of Kosovo but stressed that Podgorica was completely shut out of the process in the 1990's.

Vukovic - "Montenegro was absolutely ignored at that time, first of all by the former Belgrade regime, the Milosevic regime. Kosovo was excluded from Montenegro and treated as an exclusive problem of Belgrade. Montenegro was intentionally put aside and we could just passively observe what was happening."

Dragisa Pesic, senior official for the opposition Social Democratic Party, and former Premier of Yugoslavia, disagrees with Vukovic’s assessment. Pesic says that Montenegrins were unacceptably passive on the issue of Kosovo in the past, and he invoked a more hard line view of the situation.

Pesic - "The issue of Kosovo is not just a democratic issue, as top officials in Montenegro prefer to picture it. It is a vital state and national issue. Therefore Montenegro must not stay out of the process of resolving this issue, first of all because of the interests of Montenegro and its citizens."

The stance that Podgorica is not actively involved in the Kosovo issue is supported also by Zoran Lutovac, a senior analyst from the Belgrade based Institute for social sciences.

According to Lutovac, Podgorica authorities are trying to avoid the “hot potato” that is Kosovo, and the only initiatives being suggested are that of possible mediators for future talks between Belgrade and Pristina.

Lutovac - "The Montenegrin authorities were obviously trying to avoid the Kosovo problem for many reasons - one of them is surely the fact that within Montenegro there exists a huge number of Albanian citizens and their political representatives are partners in the ruling coalition. This helps Montenegro to foster the image of a multiethnic and civil society."

Lutovac says that Montenegro’s ruling coalition is focused on its own issue of independence, and the Kosovo issue can be seen as an obstacle to that end.

Ferhat Dinosa, leader of the Democratic Union of Albanians in Montenegro also believes that Montenegro cannot be involved more actively in solving the Kosovo issue precisely because Podgorica is locked in to it’s own aspirations for statehood.

Dinosa - "We think that Belgrade should be more involved than Montenegro regarding the Kosovo issue. After all, the final status of Kosovo would be defined through negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade and the international community, and the fact that Podgorica is less involved should not be a surprise for anyone."

Democratic Union of Albanians in Montenegro support the stance that any solution agreed by legitimate Kosovo representatives is acceptable. Dinosa suggests that future referendums regarding status, both in Montenegro and Kosovo, should be organized at the same time.

Montenegro Government official Miodrag Vukovic insists that the Kosovo issue must be treated with the utmost maturity and political sensitivity, and he says there is no room for postponing the resolution of Kosovo’s status. Lacking any sense of irony, he advocated Montenegrin independence as a way of speeding up the issue of Kosovo

Vukovic - "I think that the independence of Montenegro would highlight Kosovo as the only unresolved problem left (in the region) and by that it would force both the international community and Serbia, as well as Kosovo officials, to sit and discuss the Kosovo issue seriously."

Meanwhile, a general consensus among those interviewed for this segment was that Montenegro's political concerns have been a hostage to issues related to Kosovo.

And this concludes today’s edition of UNMIK On-Air. Stay tuned for more news and views from in and around Kosovo.