On Monday, January 22nd, the European Union Council of Ministers proclaimed the Westeuropean views on the current situation in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), suggesting a procedure and a model of solving the country’s key problems. Starting from the premise that a future agreement must suit both sides, the Council stresses the necessity of a new constitutional agreement between Serbia and Montenegro, and wishes to believe that it can be reached within the framework of a Yugoslav federation. Then it warns in general terms that the negotiation process must not be endangered by any party’s one-sided actions, and is particulary appreciative, in this context, of the constructive role played by Vojislav Koštunica, FRY President.
 First of all, one must agree with the European dignitaries. The current situation in FRY is indeed untenable and cannot be solved without a constitutional redefinition of relations between Montenegro and Serbia. We too are of this opinion. All the more so since precisely Montenegro initiated the negotiation process, having suggested a well-defined package of measures for the solution of Montenegro and Serbia inter-state relations. Montenegro proposed to the Serbian partner a new constitutional agreement advocating a union of independent and internationally recognized states, with several common functions. Now at last there are no more reasons to postpone these negotiations, since in Serbia too a new democratically elected leadership, which can legitimately represent the Serbian national interests, has recently been established.
 We therefore agree with the European standpoint also in the respect that an agreement which would suit both sides – both the Montenegrin and the Serbian state – can be reached only in partnership.
 The EU Council of Ministers, however, does not yet understand that such an agreement, which would suit both sides and which it rightfully advocates, can no longer in any way be reached within the framework of a Yugoslav federal state. For there simply is no Yugoslav federal state any more! Nor can there be one!
 Is it really necessary to explain to the respected gentlemen that Yugoslavia as a federal state is possible only as a common state of the Montenegran and the Serbian peoples, as a state-unity of Montenegro and Serbia, with common political institutions (parties, associations, parliament, government, president and army)? Is it possible that they don’t know that FRY is not such a state? Do they ignore that there exists not one single common institution in Yugoslavia (to mention above the Yugoslav army, which is perceived in Montenegro as an alien force)? That Yugoslavia’s parliament, government and president are mere tools of Serbian policies? That Vojislav Koštunica, the so-called president of Yugoslavia, is not also the president of Montenegrans? He was not elected by their votes, since Montenegro boycotted the so-called federal elections, motivated by the fact that the election’s anti-constitutional logic of Serbian national majorization cancelled in principle any possibility of Montenegran people having equal status in the pretendedly common state.
 There is more to it than that: it is much more important to understand that Yugoslavia as such can no longer exist and cannot be established by any agreement whatsoever as a common, i.e., federal state of both the Serbian and the Montenegran people. Longtime experience shows that Serbia’s and Montenegro’s national strategies are completely irreconcilable. The only model acceptable to Montenegro is a federative state founded on the equality of Montenegro and Serbia; to Serbia, on the other hand, only a formally federative state is acceptable, a state which would ensure Serbia’s “natural” supremacy over its “baby brother”. From Montenegro’s point of view, Yugoslavia is conceivable only as “little Europe”, while Serbia can conceive of it only as “great Serbia”. That is why Montenegro hates no one, not even Serbia, and that is also why Serbia cannot stand anyone, not even itself.
 It is for this reason that European statesmen should accept at last the legal-constitutional fact that Yugoslavia no longer exists, neither as a federation nor as a state. They should also accept the fact that the democratic political will of Montenegrin citizens to step out of such a non-existant state, expressed at a free referendum, is definitely not a one-sided act of separation, but the only way for Montenegro to secure its future.
 The Montenegrin public opinion, both in the homeland and in diaspora, is grateful to the international community for its principled and open support during the last few years to Montenegro’s courageous and unwavering fight against Milošević’s despotic regime. In the course of this difficult struggle, there came into being the modern democratic project of Montenegro’s transformation to a sovereign state, capable of taking part in European and the world’s economic, political and cultural integrations. Montenegro has already come a long way in this direction. It has built up just about all independent institutions it needs as a state in the process of democratic transition and consolidation, including monetary sovereignty.
 Now that such a resolute and well-thought-out Montenegrin policy has finally borne fruit (namely the legal bringing down by means of elections of a despotic and europhobic regime, which essentially endangered the Serbian people), and now that democratic forces have at last awoken in Serbia itself, it is all the more understandable why we feel deep indignation at the fact that the international community now acts short-sightedly and turns its back on its up to now principled policies, attempting injudiciously to force Montenegro to give up on its project of a sovereign state and of a pluralist civil society.
 To make ourselves clear: every reasonable person, including the ones among Montenegrins, will understand why European politicians are anxious about Serbia’s fate and why they strive to strengthen and stabilize the newly-started and fragile democratic process in Serbia. But no reasonable person, especially among Montenegrans, cannot comprehend on which political logic do the European leaders found their assumption that support to Serbia’s initial and still completely uncertain democratic transformation can be given only at the expense of Montenegro’s already developed democratic process and its already proved and reliable pro-European policy.
 The EU makes a serious mistake if it believes that it can help Serbia only by sacrificing Montenegro. We emphasize once more: Montenegro is not the problem – it wants and proposes a union of equal sovereign states. The problem is Serbia, for it does not want such a union, because it does not want to be a sovereign national state of the Serbian people!
 We call on the entire international community, in particular on EU, to help resolutely the Serbian people, so that it, too, as the last in our region, should at last establish its sovereign national state. The international community should accept the fact that Montenegro itself cannot do more than constitute its own free state and thereby “forced Serbia to be free”. Only a well-considered and coordinated policy of the entire European community can provide efficient assistance to Serbia’s new political leadership, which as yet cannot or dares not understand that Serbia itself must first of all be constituted as a sovereign and internationally recognized state. In a country ravaged and humiliated by the collapse of  the nationalist project of the “great Serbia”, the Serbian leadership faces tremendous problems. Although their anxiety is understandable, we expect that they shall assume political responsibility for the fate of their people, and also of our whole region, and face soberly the reality of their gravely ill society. Numerous tasks await them: firstly, the necessity of systematic denazification, the constitutional ban on fascist parties’ activity and the institution of legal proceedings against war criminels; secondly, the political, economic and spiritual revival; and, finally, the building of the Serbian state as a federal state, guaranteeing autonomous status to Vojvodina and Kosovo. Only such a democratic, constitutional and federative state of Serbia could become an attractive partner in the future processes of integration in our part of Europe.
 For this reason, we call the attention of the EU to the fact that it must found its policies on firm principles and real interests. It should not deceive itself with illusions regarding a possible maintenance of a Yugoslav state, for this would help no one, neither Serbia nor Montenegro, and would moreover discredit the EC politically and morally. The Montenegrin issue is, therefore, a test case for the credibility of the Modern European Community of Peoples project, which Montenegro too is willing to join as an internationally recognized state and a member of UN and the European associations – inviting Serbia as well to do so.
 For many months the Montenegrin World Association (MWA) has been undertaking a well-thought-out and coordinated action, through national associations in European countries, to explain the modern sense of the Montenegrin issue to European diplomats and governments. The most recent viewpoints of the EU Council of Ministers show that we have not as yet been successful and that the Montenegrin diaspora in European countries must persist and increase its activity in attempting to win over argumentedly the European democratic public opinions and their governments. Let us set in motion all of our political intelligence and patriotic will, so that the international community should provide principled political support and concrete economic assistance to our original homeland, enabling it to turn towards its future – the independent European state of Montenegro.

Lalović Dragutin
Pavićević Radomir
Banović Milo
members of the MWA Coordination Board

February 05, 2001
 

                               Crna Gora i Evropa
 

U ponedjeljak 22. januara, Savjet ministara Evropske Unije obznanio je zapadnoevropske poglede na sadašnju situaciju u SR Jugoslaviji i preporučio postupak i model rješavanja ključnih problema te zemlje. Polazeći od toga da budući dogovor mora odgovarati objema stranama, Savjet ističe nužnost novoga ustavnog dogovora između Srbije i Crne Gore, te želi vjerovati da se on može postići u okviru jugoslovenske federacije; zatim uopšteno upozorava da pregovarački proces ne smiju ugroziti ničije jednostrane akcije i pritom posebno pohvaljuje konstruktivnu ulogu predsjednika SR Jugoslavije Vojislava Koštunice.
S evropskim se uglednicima valja najprije složiti. Sadašnja situacija u SR Jugoslaviji doista je neodrživa i ne može se riješiti bez ustavnoga redefinisanja odnosa između Crne Gore i Srbije. To je i naše ubjeđenje. Utoliko prije što je upravo Crna Gora inicijator pregovaračkog procesa, koji je započela predloživši precizan paket mjera za rješenje državnih odnosa Crne Gore i Srbije. Srpskom partneru predložila je novi ustavni dogovor o savezu nezavisnih i medjunarodno priznatih država, sa nekoliko zajedničkih funkcija. Sada napokon više nema nikakvih razloga za odlaganje tih pregovora, budući da je i u Samoj Srbiji nedavno uspostavljeno novo, demokratski izabrano vodstvo koje može legitimno zastupati srpske državne interese. 
S evropskim se stajalištem slažemo, dakle, i u tome da se samo partnerski može postići dogovor koje će odgovarati objema stranama, i crnogorskoj i srpskoj državi.
Ali Savjet ministara EU još ne shvaća da takav dogovor, koji će odgovarati objema stranama, za što se s punim pravom zalaže, više nikako ne može biti postignut u okviru jugoslovenske federativne države. Jer jugoslovenske federativne države naprosto više nema! Niti je može biti! 
Zar poštovanoj gospodi doista treba objašnjavati da je Jugoslavija kao savezna država moguća samo kao zajednička država srpskoga i crnogorskog naroda, kao državno jedinstvo Crne Gore i Srbije, sa zajedničkim političkin institucijama (strankama, udruženjima, parlamentom, vladom, predsjednikom i vojskom)? Zar zaista ne znaju da SR Jugoslavija nije takva država? Da u njoj ne postoji nijedna zajednička institucija: počevši od Vojske Jugoslavije, koja se u Crnog Gori doživljava kao strana sila, i parlament i vlada i predsjednik Jugoslavije samo su faktori srbijanske politike? Da tzv. predsjednik Jugoslavije Vojislav Koštunica nije i predsjednik Crnogoraca, njihovim glasovima nije izabran, budući da je Crna Gora bojkotovala tzv. savezne izbore koji su svojom protivustavnom logikom srpske nacionalne majorizacije u načelu onemogućavali ravnopravnost crnogorskog naroda u tobože zajedničkoj državi.
I ne samo to: još je mnogo važnije shvatiti da Jugoslavija kao takva više ne može postojati i da nikakvim dogovorom ne može biti uspostavljena kao zajednička, dakle federativna država i srpskoga i crnogorskog naroda. Dugogodišnje iskustvo pokazuje da su nacionalne strategije Srbije i Crne Gore potpuno nepomirljive. Za Crnu Goru je prihvatljiva samo federativna država koja se temelji na ravnopravnosti Crne Gore i Srbije; za Srbiju je pak prihvatljiva samo formalno federativna država, koja će osigurati njezinu “prirodnu” premoć nad “mlađim bratom”. Za Crnu Goru je Jugoslavija zamisliva samo kao “mala Evropa”, za Srbiju pak samo kao “velika Srbija”. Zato Crna Gora ne mrzi nikoga, pa ni Srbiju, i zato Srbija ne podnosi nikoga, pa ni sebe samu.
Stoga bi evropski državnici najzad morali uvažiti ustavnopravnu činjenicu da Jugoslavija više ne postoji ni kao federacija ni kao država, te da demokratska politička volja crnogorskih građana, na slobodnom referendumu, za izlazak iz takve nepostojeće države nipošto nije jednostrana akcija odvajanja, nego je jedini način da Crna Gora osigura svoju budućnost.
Crnogorska javnost, i u domovini i u iseljeništvu, zahvalna je međunarodnoj zajednici što je u posljednjih nekoliko godina principijelno i otvoreno podupirala hrabru i nepokolebljivu borbu Crne Gore protiv Miloševićevog despotskog režima. U toj teškoj borbi oblikovan je savremeni demokratski projekat preobražaja Crne Gore u suverenu državu, sposobnu da se uključi u evropske i svjetske privredne, političke i kulturne integracije. Na tom je putu Crna Gora već daleko odmakla i izgradila gotovo sve samostalne institucije koje su joj kao državi potrebne u procesu demokratske tranzicije i konsolidacije, ukljućujući i monetarnu suverenost.
Utoliko je razumljivija naša duboka indignacija što sada - kada je takva odlučna i promišljena crnogorska politika najzad urodila plodom, legalnim izbornim rušenjem despotskog i evrofobičnog režima, koji je ponajprije srpski narod ugrozio u njegovoj životnoj supstanci, kada su se najzad i u samoj Srbiji probudile demokratske snage – međunarodna zajednica kratkovido okreće ledja svojoj dosadašnjoj principijelnoj politici i Crnu Goru hoće bezobzirno i nepromišljeno prinuditi da odustane od svog projekta suverene države i pluralističkoga građanskog društva.
Da se razumijemo! Svako će razborit, i medju Crnogorcima, razumjeti zašto odgovorni evropski političari strijepe nad sudbinom Srbije i nastoje ojačati i stabilizovati tek započeti i krhki demokratski proces u Srbiji. Ali niko razuman, naročito među Crnogorcima, ne može shvatiti kojom se to političkom logikom rukovode evropski čelnici kada misle da se podrška početnoj i još potpuno neizvjesnoj demokratskoj transformaciji Srbije može dati samo na račun već razvijenog demokratskog procesa i već osvjedočene proevropske politike Crne Gore.
Evropska zajednica se duboka vara ako vjeruje da Srbiji može pomoći samo tako da žrtvuje Crnu Goru. Ponovo ističemo: nije problem u Crnoj Gori, ona hoće i predlaže savez ravnopravnih suverenih država. Problem je u Srbiji, koja takav savez neće, jer ne želi biti suverena nacionalna država srpskog naroda!
Pozivamo cjelokupnu međunarodnu zajednicu, naročito evropsku, da odlučno pomogne srpskom narodu da najzad, kao posljednji u našoj regiji, uspostavi svoju suverenu nacionalnu državu. Neka međunarodna zajednica uvaži da sama Crna Gora ne može učini više nego da konstituisanjem svoje slobodne države Srbiju “prisili na slobodu”. Samo promišljena i usklađena politika cijele evropske zajednice može djelotvorno pomoći novome političkom vodstvu Srbije, koje još ne može ili se ne usudjuje shvatiti da se naprije sama Srbija mora konstituisati kao suverena i medjunarodno priznata država. U zemlji poharanoj i poniženoj debaklom nacionalističkog projekta “velike Srbije”, ogromni su problemi s kojima se srpsko vodstvo sučava. Premda je njegove strijepnje moguće razumjeti, očekujemo od njega da politički odgovorno za sudbinu svog naroda, a time i cijele naše regije, trezveno pogleda u oči stvarnosti sopstvenog teško bolesnog društva. Pred njim su brojni zadaci: od nužnosti sistematske denacifikacije, ustavne zabrane djelovanja fašističkih stranaka i sudskog procesuiranja ratnih zločinaca, preko političkoga, ekonomskog i duhovnog preporoda, do izgradnje same srpske države kao savezne države, s osiguranjem autonomog statusa Vojvodine i Kosova. Tek bi takva demokratska, ustavna i federativna država Srbija mogla postati privlačnim partnerom budućih integracijskih procesa u našem dijelu Evrope.
Stoga upozoravamo evropsku zajednicu da svoju politiku mora graditi na čvrstim principima i realnim interesima. Neka se ne zavarava iluzijama o mogućem održanju jugoslovenske države, jer time neće pomoći nikome, ni Srbiji ni Crnoj Gori, a sebe će politički i moralno diskreditovati. Na crnogorskom se pitanju, dakle, iskušava civilizacijska vjerodostojnost projekta savremene evropske zajednice narodâ, u koji se i Crna Gora želi uključiti – pozivajući i Srbiju da to učini - kao međunarodno priznata država, članica OUN-a i evropskih asocijacija.
Crnogorska svjetska asocijacija već mjesecima preduzima promišljenu i koordinisanu akciju, preko nacionalnih udruženja u evropskim zemljama, da evropskim diplomatima i vladama objasni savremeni smisao crnogorskog pitanja. Najnoviji stavovi Savjeta ministara EU jasno pokazuju da u tome još nismo uspjeli i da crnogorsko iseljeništvo u evropskim zemljama mora istrajati i pojačati svoju aktivnost u argumentovanom pridobijanju evropske demokratske javnosti i njihovih vlada. Pokrenimo svu našu političku  pamet i patriotsku volju da međunarodna zajednica principijelno politički podrži i konkretno ekonomski pomogne našoj matičnoj domovini da se okrene svojoj budućnosti – samostalnoj evropskoj državi Crnoj Gori.

Lalović Dragutin
Radomir Pavićević
Milo Banović,
članovi Koordinacionog odbora CSA 

5. veljače 2001.