Belgrade, 20/06/2021

PUBLIC STATEMENT

Encourage Reforms, Not Ethnic Tensions 

Forum for Security and Democracy calls on all Serbian officials and media to refrain from statements and publications that could lead to further destabilization of the political situation in Montenegro and further worsening and erosion of relations between Serbia and Montenegro.

FSD, at the same time, strongly condemns the statements of Serbian officials which call for revanchism and reprisals against the representatives of the people of Montenegro who voted in the Parliament in accordance with their own interests, not the expectations or whims from the “political elite” in Belgrade.

FSD underscores how we are, once again, witnessing manifestations of a gross misunderstanding of the plain fact that the interest of Serbia isn’t the same as the interest of Montenegro and we remind everyone that Belgrade and Serbia have not been the centers from which decisions on Montenegro’s future are made for over fifteen years.

FSD warns of the danger of policies that, in effect, represent a continuation of contesting and outright attempts to annul the independence of Montenegro, and views as ruinous and condemnable any incitement of hostilities within Montenegran society, and even public unrest that can be seen on the streets of Podgorica in the past few days which, as such, need to be unambiguously condemned by Belgrade and from which it needs to publicly distance itself from.

Forum for Security and Democracy wishes to underline the fact that both Serbia’s National Assembly, as well as the Assembly of Republic fo Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also passed their own resolutions on Srebrenica and that, in that respect, criticizing Montenegro for passing such a resolution is nothing but a transparent ruse to cover continued attempts to interfere in internal affairs of a sovereign nation.

FSD, last but not least, warns that such statements represent additional attempts and pressure on Serbia and its public aimed at further deterring Serbia from the West and the European Union and encouraging new ethic rivalries and primitive political populism instead of inciting reforms that would hasten Serbia’s road towards the EU.

FSD reiterates that Serbia needs policies that affirm it as a factor of regional and European stability, not policies that aim to turn Serbia into a generator and mass-producer of frozen conflicts and ethnic tensions that were both tragic and ruinous in the not so recent past.