Podgorica/Brussels, 16 April 2003: Efforts to promote regional stability in
the Balkans have been hampered by an unnecessary obsession with keeping Montenegro and Serbia in a
single state. While international engagement with Montenegro in particular has brought significant
positive results, it is time for new policies and new approaches.
In a new report,
A Marriage of Inconvenience: Montenegro 2003*, the International Crisis Group says that the
formation of the new state union of Serbia and Montenegro is an interim solution that lacks legitimacy
with the citizens of the two republics and is unlikely to be functional in practice.
ICG Europe Program Director Nicholas Whyte said, "The agreement on the new union
takes no account of the status of Kosovo, notionally still an autonomous province of Serbia but in
practice a UN protectorate. As long as Kosovo's future remains unsolved the union does not represent
a stable solution for the territories of the defunct Federal Republic of Yugoslavia".
The European Union exerted heavy pressure on Serbia and Montenegro to remain
together as a single state, driven by concern that early Montenegrin independence would force
an unready international community to address Kosovo's status prematurely.
ICG Montenegro Analyst Peter Palmer said, "The international community should be
prepared to support whatever solution Montenegro and Serbia can agree upon for their future
relationship. The EU in particular should be ready to assist those two republics while adopting a
neutral stance on what the form of that relationship should be".
A major focus of the international community should be to promote reforms. The
negative attitude of many in the international community towards Montenegro as an alleged haven for
organised crime has led to a distorted approach in which the prevalence of organised crime is
sometimes linked to the status issue.
Peter Palmer said, "Organised crime and corruption are indeed problems in
Montenegro, as elsewhere in the region. But they are irrelevant to the status of the republic.
Emphasis should be placed on helping, and where necessary, pressing Montenegro to reform its criminal
justice system and end political interference in that system. Whether to maintain or suspend such
assistance should be based on an assessment of concrete results, not merely the passing of new laws".
The Montenegrin government still depends on international assistance. That leverage
can be better used to promote real change in the way Montenegro is governed than in trying to keep
the republic in a union with Serbia at all costs.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Katy Cronin (London) +44-(0)20 7981 0330
email: [email protected]
Francesca Lawe-Davies (Brussels) +32-(0)2-536 00 65
Jennifer Leonard (Washington) +1-202-785 1601
*Read the full ICG report on our website:
www.crisisweb.org
