Montenegro’s election is being followed by a silent ethnic cleansing of Muslims from the northern part of the country and those behind it are the same ones who did so in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s, journalist and publicist Seki Radoncic told N1 on Wednesday.
Last weekend’s victory of the opposition in Montenegro was marked by nationalistic outbursts by Serbs in the country who have in some instances celebrated the end of the 30-years-long rule of the pro-western party of Milo Djukanovic with attacks targeting the Muslim minority and mosques.
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“The situation is very dramatic. It is ongoing silently still today, the ethnic cleansing in the north of Montenegro. We are not in the year 2020, but in 1992 or 1982,” Radoncic said.
Although members of the winning coalition and Serbian Orthodox Bishop Amfilohije Radovic, who is seen as one of the spiritual leaders of the opposition, called for calm and for an end to attacks, Radoncic said that their overall actions led to what is happening and that this appears to him as “typical behaviour of a pyromaniac.”
“They have lit this fire, this is the consequence of a policy of ‘blood and soil’,” he said, accusing the winning coalition of having aspirations towards reviving the idea of a Greater Serbia.
“Bosniaks are not moving and running away from their homes because they are faking something, as was alleged during the 1990s – that they were simulating their homes being burnt down – but Bosniaks are now experiencing enormous pressure, as well as minorities and Montenegrins,” he said.
Asked by sociologist Vesna Pesic who the perpetrators of these attacks are, Radoncic said that “those who are burning down, breaking and intimidating here are the same ones who were doing it in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
“I already expect that scores of people will be moving from northern Montenegro toward Bosnia and Herzegovina, trying to save whatever they can. Police are already stretched thin all over the country and can not cover every corner,” he said.
Djukanovic’s party lost to an ad hoc coalition made up of Serbian nationalists and leftists who were at odds with each other but united against his party after the results were announced and formed a front that could occupy 41 seats in the 81 member parliament.
“The essence is this: there is a difference in one MP. When we look at the figures, Montenegro has its president (Djukanovic) and 40 MPs. On the other side, we have politicians who strongly disagree with each other – it is a combination of leftists and extreme rightists. It’s clear that they reconciled after they received a directive,” he said.
Radoncic added that top opposition politicians in Montenegro frequently went to Belgrade for consultations throughout the past six months.
“Until a month ago, they attacked each other in terrible ways. Someone with a strong hand reconciled them. That hand is from Belgrade, and Belgrade is an extended hand of Moscow,” he said.
