Prevlaka and Deceit

"If an embassy is planned for Belgrade, it's logical to have a consular office down here, and we already have a candidate for Consul," Markovic told the daily Pobjeda.

A few days later, Minister Lekic said that Montenegro was examining the matter of opening consulates, with priority given to friendly states and "our neighbours."

The two statements did not cause passionate reactions by professional patriots. Speculations started circulating as to what had been agreed behind closed doors and what had triggered the sudden surprise moves towards the normalization of relations between erstwhile enemies.

Asked if Croatia was considering a person who would not upset the Montenegrins, Markovic said; "There should be no more provocations. I think we have fulfilled the quota and we should turn over another page."

He said he expected no problems with Montenegro, adding that the question of Prevlaka should be put aside. "That peninsula won't make you any richer and it won't make us poorer," Markovic said. "And once Croatian-Serbian relations are properly resolved - which is the key of peace in the Balkans - everything else will be resolved as well."

The public in Montenegro received Markovic's statements as a gesture of good will. Even those Montenegrins who had raided Dubrovnik in the firm conviction that they were fighting a war of defence, in the belief that "Prevlaka belongs to us", remained silent.

Minister Lekic told foreign guests at a trade union conference last week that Croatia had not been recognized and that its troops were a paramilitary force. The only legitimate force was the JNA, and Montenegro was loyal to the federal leadership, said Lekic. It was not Montenegrins, but JNA troops, who raided Dubrovnik, said Lekic repeating Montenegro's official excuse. Since it still hasn't come up with an explanation for President Momir Bulatovic's visits to troops on the Dubrovnik-Herzegovina battle front. Sources close to the regime in Cetinje (Montenegro's capital) say that, after Croatia's recognition, Montenegro had been willing to stop combat operations in the area.

The President himself did not raise the qeustion of Prevlaka too often in the past year, which some analysts link to a tacit agreement to simply surrender the peninsula to Montenegro, or demilitarize the zone and take over significant tourist resources on both sides of the border.

President Bulatovic recently said at the ruling party's convention that it would be senseless to "collide with Macedonia and Slovenia." He went on to say that the "normalization of relations in the territory of ex-Yugoslavia implied a normal life and with greater readiness to give life a chance to reconcile the conflicting realities."

The process of normalization with Croatia surfaced the issue of Montenegro's foreign policy. Shortly after the republic's defence ministry was abolished, President Bultovic said the federal state might soon take over the republic's diplomatic activities. But Lekic ruled out any possibility of dissolving the foreign ministry, saying that business there was as usual.

The statement soothed those political parties in Montenegro, which believed that this would deal a final blow to the republic's statehood.

Under the Constitution, Montenegro's interior and foreign policy rest with the government.

As for its strategic interests, Montenegro wants to see the border-crossing on Debeli Brijeg opened as soon as possible, despite the fact that the question is not included in the so-called Croatian-Serbian normalization package. According to unofficial reports, the Montenegrin leadership informed Belgrade that it does not wish to be Yugoslavia's "dead end".