Горячие темы:

Independence by Default

06 июля, 00:00

By Vitaly PORTNYKOV,The Day President of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic said the other day that a referendum might be held on the status of this Yugoslav republic. In fact, it is the question of Montenegro leaving the Yugoslav federation, an action for which the Montenegrin political elite is carefully and cautiously preparing the populace frightened by the latest Balkan war. The president of Montenegro, incidentally a former Communist, has been receiving appeals from the academic and creative intelligentsia to urgently consider the problem of their republic's future. It should be noted that the Montenegrin President made such a serious statement after the recent meeting with the US President: could Djukanovic may have received assurances from Bill Clinton that the West will not tolerate the Milosevic regime's interference in the affairs of Montenegro?

But this is independence by default. Even President of Slovenia Milan Kucan expressed the wish that Montenegro remain part of Yugoslavia. It will be recalled that Mr. Kucan was the symbol of Slovenia's exit from federal socialist Yugoslavia, the first secession. The shrewd Slovene leader is fully aware of the difference between the conscious desire to live independently and the flight from a weak center that failed to come up to expectations. Was it different in the former Soviet Union? The Baltic nations, like Slovenia, had striven for freedom even when one could not imagine leaving the empire even in one's wildest dream. Belarus and Macedonia proclaimed independence because they had to. To be more exact, they renamed their declarations of sovereignty as those of independence, nothing more.

And Ukraine? Could we ever have mustered the courage, but for the putsch? The difference between the will for freedom and unintentional independence lies in how people live. I wish Montenegro would have more luck.

Выпуск газеты №:

№25, (1999)

Section

Day After Day