In an interview for Pobjeda daily, President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia Ms Sonja Biserko noted that the independence of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, CPC, and ‘the church issue’ represented the only open identity issues in Montenegro.
She also emphasized that Montenegro was particularly important when it comes to the geopolitical aspirations of Serbia, and it was often treated as ‘an internal issue’ in SRB.
When asked to reflect on the recently held session of the UN General Assembly, attended by the leaders of the countries of the region who didn’t talk a lot with each other, she said: “Relations among the regional political leaders are poor and mostly happen thanks to the involvement of the EU and the USA. Their speeches at the UN General Assembly indicated that there was no a single regional approach to any problem, and there are many problems, you would agree. The most interesting speech was the one delivered by the President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who struggled to point out to a dramatic situation in Bosnia and ‘bad’ politics in the neighboring countries.”
On the request of Patriarch Irinej, who visited MNE recently and sent a message to the President of Montenegro, expressing hope that Montenegro would withdraw recognition of Kosovo’s independence, Ms Biserko noted: “Serbia’s presence in Montenegro is becoming more aggressive which clearly indicates the significance Montenegro has for Serbia. The latest reason for fueling tensions between the two countries is the proposal for the draft church law. The issue of independence of the CPC would completely resolve the process of the Montenegrin statehood. In this sense, the church issue is the only remaining and open issue of all identity issues in the country.”
Commenting on the proposal of the Serbian President to establish the Balkan Union consisting of Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and B&H, she said: “This whole idea is just an attempt to mitigate the fact that the EU membership won’t happen soon. When it comes to Serbia, its motives are always strongly connected with its pretensions. Moreover, the fact that Serbia still hasn’t clearly opted for the EU membership additionally complicates the situation. It’s hard to believe that it [SRB] genuinely accepts the idea of the Union having in mind that it recently rejected the Hague document promoting more or less the same idea.”
