An Overview

This represents an optimum within the thorn Yugoslav community, or rather the highest achievement of the Montenegrin leadership or the Democratic Socialist Party. The strength of the Parliament is no proportional to the dominant number of MPs in Parliament and this is likely to be the reason why the leadership tried to gain time for making the fateful decision.

After everything that has happened, the conclusions of the Parliament serve the interests of everyone: of the ones who took the declaration to be an ultimatum which should be treated with an emphatic NO (the ruling Democratic Socialist Party and the National Party), but also of the ones (the reformists and the democratic coalition) who see their chance in some of the conclusions. Considering that Montenegro enjoys the international status of a sovereign state, the Montenegrin Parliament says that in case Yugoslavia is not recognized as an international legal subject, the sovereignty and the international legal status of Montenegro will not be threatened.

Advocates of that option could be heard as saying that the international recognition of Yugoslavia as an independent state subject will never be called into question, since the world will be forced to recognize the peoples and the territories which choose to live in one community, be it an association or the federation of Serbian states.

That seems to be the possible bone of contention between the two wings - the question of the association of sovereign states or the association of Serbian states,

or, in the last instance, the existence of independent sovereign state of Montenegro. This will be decided on a forth coming referendum, but the National Party is convinced that the result of the referendum will eventually lead them to their final aim - to the association of Serbian states or the unification of all the Serbs in one state. This is precisely the reason they suggested to the Montenegrin Parliament to recognize as a republic the Serbian Krajina, which was later rejected.

The possible sovereignty of Montenegro, according to its president Momir Bulatovic, leads to new conflicts, but it is a big question whether and when this war will end. During his visit to America, president Bulatovic said that he has no designs on Dubrovnik and that if he were the man in charge, the Army would immediately retreat. It was expected that, following his statement, the Army would retreat from the Herzegovina and Dubrovnik front as it happened in Banija. In any case, the agony of Montenegro goes on despite the emergency session of its parliament. At least, that is the message of the leadership of the Association of Reformists for the Montenegrin part of the coast, and the Socialist Party in its report emphasizes that "in the present circumstances giving up on Montenegrin sovereignty would mean that the citizens of Montenegro were literally left at the mercy of the Yugoslav Army and the incomplete Yu-Presidency to continue with the war". The Montenegrin Parliament should no have left Montenegro with the present undefined status without first answering the following question: what will the Montenegrin leadership do if the Army leads the citizens of Montenegro into the war against the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina? The Moslem population is second in number in Montenegro, so war in B&H would at the same time mean the disintegration of the Montenegrin state and its civilian fibre.

The act of sovereignty of Montenegro, says Slavko Perovic (the Liberal Alliance), "is rejected by the ones who are also against the separation of Montenegro from the Yugoslav chaos and madness. They are the ones pushing us into the state whose very existence, framework and ethnic make-up are uncertain".

"Montenegro cannot lose its sovereignty as long as Yugoslavia still exists", claims dr. Mitar Cvorovic (The National Party). "On the contrary, Montenegrin sovereignty is stronger in Yugoslavia that it would be in an independent state of Montenegro for the simple reason that sovereignty is as strong as the state. Paper sovereignty is nothing without the force to protect it".

This could be solution to the problem, since sovereign Montenegro would imply a different relationship between the Montenegrin authorities and the Army, which would have a decisive influence on the continuation of the war. President Bulatovic no doubt has the power to do what he did in America, but it is a big question how the new relationship with the Army would function or rather would it go without bloodshed. The Montenegrin affirmative answer to the European Community could call into question the recognition of Montenegro, regardless of its long-standing state status, since it was the 27th state to be recognized in the world. There will be a host of uneasy questions which all boils down to one thing: is Montenegro sovereign on its own territory? Thus all has been left to the further development of events, on which the formal Montenegrin power centre is unlikely to exercise much influence.