Ethnic Tensions Rise, Muslims Targeted After Montenegro Elections
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Broken windows at the Islamic Community office in Pljevlja. Photo: Facebook/Samir Kadribasic
The head imam in the northern Montenegrin town of Pljevlja, Samir Kadribasic, said on Wednesday that unknown assailants have smashed windows at the local office of the Islamic Community, the official body representing the country’s Muslims.
Kadribasic told BIRN that someone threw a message through a broken window warning that “Pljevlja will be Srebrenica” – the town whose Bosniak population was massacred by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995.
“I am afraid that there will be some reaction from the other side [Bosniaks] and that it will cause chaos,” Kadribasic said.
“I will hold the police directly responsible if they do not find the perpetrators,” he added.
The Serbian Orthodox Church’s top bishop in Montenegro, Metropolitan Amfilohije, also called on the authorities to find the perpetrators, saying that there should not be ethnic tensions in the country.
“This is not about an authentic form of expression of religious hatred and intolerance and hooliganism, but about a well-thought-out plan to raise tensions due to the outcome of the elections,” Amfilohije said in a statement.
“An attack on the Muslims of Pljevlja is an attack on every Christian in Pljevlja and on every citizen of Montenegro,” he added.
The country’s three main opposition blocs won a slim parliamentary majority at Sunday’s parliamentary elections, defeating the Democratic Party of Socialists, the party that has been in power for three decades.
Since then, opposition supporters have continued to celebrate, chanting slogans against President Milo Djukanovic, the Democratic Party of Socialists’ leader, and waving Montenegrin and Serbian flags. Some of the parties in the opposition blocs are strongly pro-Serbian.
On Tuesday, police reported incidents in several Montenegrin towns, and said that Bosniaks were verbally and physically assaulted in Pljevlja.
Three people from Pljevlja were charged with attacking one man, and three further incidents were reported in the town.
Police said that altercations between opposition and ruling party supporters were also reported in the capital Podgorica and the towns of Niksic, Herceg Novi and Bar.
On Wednesday, the head of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Husein Kavazovic, called on the Montenegrin authorities to protect the country’s Muslim minority.
“It all reminds us of ideologies that have already led to war crimes and genocide in the region during the 1990s,” Kavazovic said in a statement.
The leader of the Black on White opposition bloc, Dritan Abazovic, visited Pljevlja and talked with head imam Kadribasic. Afterwards he urged opposition supporters to end their street celebrations.
“Now the main task of all parties in the new government is to preserve peace, to complete the transition without any provocations and incidents that are desired by the Democratic Party of Socialists, in order to start cleaning up the great chaos they left us after three decades,” Abazovic said on Tuesday.
President Milo Djukanovic has accused the opposition of bearing responsibility for the incidents after its electoral victory, saying that opposition parties are promoting nationalist ideas.
“The winners have reasons to celebrate, but that celebration always implies a civilised attitude towards other citizens and towards preserving the stability of Montenegro. Last night we saw an outburst of intolerance, aggression and primitivism,” Djukanovic told TV Newsmax Adria on Tuesday.
Montenegrin Interior Minister Mevludin Nuhodzic has vowed to maintain peace and stability.
Montenegro is a multi-ethnic state in which no community has an absolute majority. About 45 per cent of the population identify as Montenegrin and about 29 per cent as Serbian.
Bosniaks make up roughly 8.3 per cent of the population, and mostly live in the northern towns of Rozaje, Pljevlja, Bijelo Polje, Petnjica, Plav and Gusinje.
