President of the Social Democratic Party of Montenegro

These attacks do not surprise nor worry this party, which always had a clear stand regarding events from the domestic and international political scene, especially now, as Dr. Ilija Vujosevic, the president of SDP says, following the tumultuous events, when the Montenegrin party scene is gradually being channeled around three options. "At the beginning", Dr. Ilija Vujosevic says, "the separation line was in the stand towards war, so that, together with the ruling Democratic Socialist Party (DPS), national and national-chauvinistic Serbian parties found their place in the patriotic "front". On the other side you had anti-war democratic parties, amongst them SDP and some parties bearing Montenegrin, Moslem and Albanian national connotations. Broadly speaking, the same line marked the division regarding Montenegro's state and national issues. A certain "collision" came about following the 1992 elections, and especially after the turning point of Milosevic's peace policy in August 1994. Now the parties of the patriotic war lobby are quickly washing their hands of their previous war nationalistic policies. With the collapse of the imperial project of a "Greater Serbia", which they were propagating from Gazimestan to Pale and Knin, all they are left to do now is to accuse each other of treason and to, as quickly as possible, blend or hide in some coalition, if need be, even with parties with whose basic program principles they hardly have anything in common."

Therefore, in Montenegro today we have before us three policies: of the ruling party, of an anti-government union at any price and for every issue and the policies of SDP as a responsible and realistic opposition.

The public is familiar with the fact that SDP is an anti-war democratic party of the left orientation. However, what solutions did your party propose?

From the very beginning of the war crisis we gathered around us civically brave people with moral integrity who refused to become cowardly spectators in times when a wave of madness and nationalistic euphoria inflamed the bloodiest and most filthy, therefore, the most illogical war of spiritually close, historically and destiny-wise intertwined people. We have had and have retained the standpoint that there is no alternative to a mutual life with our neighbors and compatriots. More than others, we interceded on behalf of international recognition of all six former Yugoslav republics, that is, we were against the legalization of war and the consequences of force in the region.

How do you estimate the Montenegrin role in the peace process?

The appeasement of the war crisis and the structure of relations between the former Yugoslav republics cannot unfold without the active and equal participation of Montenegro. The experience of the empty chair in Versailles in 1918 is totally unacceptable to us. Repeating such a practice would designate the final breakdown of Montenegro's state subjectivity. Therefore, Montenegro must directly, without intermediaries, and with clear peace initiatives, accomplish its share of the business. On this or some other government lays the historical responsibility to rehabilitate as soon as possible honor and the free-thinking tradition of Montenegro, which has been seriously undermined by the inadmissible role which this government, together with the "Serbian-like" parties, SPC and numerous other affiliates, had accepted on account of the Greater Serbia regime from the "anti-bureaucratic revolution" until today.

Where does Montenegro actually stand?

In a two-members federation which the world knows of, but does not recognize. In a temporary state situation, which emerged as a consequence of an agreement between the parties SPS-DPS, so that it pulsates in beat to the relations of those two parties. In such a state of completely unequal federal units, it is unavoidable that Montegro's state infrastructure will be demolished or is being demolished, its spiritual and cultural individualism is being destroyed or is being quietly assimilated, its historical recognition and international subjectivity is disappearing. Sooner or later (if not already today) Montenegro and its citizens shall find themselves faced by the question: whether they should accept the quasi-federal state of high internal centralization, transforming slowly and unavoidably into a somewhat different "Serbian region", or whether they should go back to their roots, to their not only Balkan but also Mediterranean and European tradition and from such a starting point commence building bridges of cooperation with everyone.

How do you see the solution to Montenegro's status?

We consider the issue of the status of Montenegro's state as completely open, until the time when it becomes a democratic issue which will be solved in a democratic milieu and by democratic procedures, by a referendum which will differ entirely from the 1992 one. Then we can only decide with whom and on which principles will Montenegro associate itself with, and not whether it is a state and whether it has the right to an existence. Connections with the elements of hegemony, regardless of whose they are, are for the citizens of Montenegro, regardless of their demographic, geographic and economic capacities, and not only due to historical reasons, degrading and unacceptable. The decision concerning the character of those ties can only be made in Montenegro and only after it has been established as a truly democratic community, and after its citizens have been liberated from the feeling of fear of the war and of the consequences of free-thinking.

How does SDP look upon the issue of Prevlaka?

Until now, a completely incorrect policy of both the government and the opposition has been used in that issue, which failed to find a consistent stand. Prevlaka is, without doubt, Montenegrin territory, about which only Montenegrins and Croats can negotiate and make decisions. The Dubrovnik episode and the burning down of Konavala, as the most difficult and most expensive mistake of the Montenegrin government, has endangered Montenegro's position regarding that most important rocky terrain on Jadran.

As a physical and geographic whole with the Bokakotorska Bay together with undisputed documents following World War II, it is a confirmed fact that Prevlaka is a part of Montenegrin territory and cannot be an item of trade - for some "three-way exchange". The settling of other's accounts by using legitimate Montenegrin interests, that is territories, we regard as a continuation of the policy that somebody else decides for Montenegro, as well as for this problem, "generously" returning to us what is already ours. Of course, with the mortgage of the existing federal or, even worse, some other "state". Therefore, this existing situation demands complete caution and long term diplomatic efforts (transitional status, demilitarization, reciprocal guarantees, etc.). However, that is Montenegro's concern and it doesn't need further involvement in the Serb-Croat territorial and other arrangements even in this case.