Montenegro Soldiers Who Join Church Protests Face Expulsion
Montenegrin Armed Forces. Photo: Wikipedia/CRNAGORAMNE
Montenegro Army Chief General Dragutin Dakic has told television Vijesti that any soldiers or officers taking part in recent protests against the new law on religion risked being forced out, as there was no place in the military for those who want to defend the Church from the law.
Since Montenegro’s parliament passed the disputed law on December 27, tens of thousands of Serbian Orthodox Church clergy, believers and supporters have been protesting twice-weekly, demanding its withdrawal.
Opposition pro-Russian and pro-Serbian political movements that generally support the Serbian Church are regular participants in the rallies and marches.
But General Dakic warned that soldiers have a duty to defend the state in accordance with the laws and the constitution, and cannot take part in political manifestations.
“It is unacceptable to participate in protests where there are visible political implications, where we can only see the flags of another state … and when Montenegro and Montenegrins are underrated and insulted,” Dakic said on Wednesday, referencing the presence of Serbian flags and emblems at the rallies.
On Wednesday, the Serbian daily Vecernje Novosti reported that during an army meeting on February 6, Dakic threatened officers with exclusion from military service if they participated in the protests.
In an interview with the Montenegrin public broadcaster on February 4, President Milo Djukanovic delivered the same warning to members of his ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, saying those who joined the marches against the religion law risked expulsion from the party.
During a DPS presidency meeting on Wednesday, Djukanovic described the protests against the law as the last political battle “fought by the opponents of the Montenegrin state” – referencing ethnic Serbs and others who opposed the country’s independence in 2006.
[After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, until 2006, Serbia and Montenegro remained for some years in a loose “state union.”]
The President said that law would be implemented because it upheld the civic concept of the state.
“The biggest job and responsibility is certainly on the government and its ministers, but each of us has our own part of the job, whether it is the party, state institutions or local governments,” Djukanovic said.
The disputed law, adopted in December, calls for the creation of a register of all religious buildings and sites that authorities say were owned by the independent kingdom of Montenegro before it became part of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918, later renamed Yugoslavia.
Under the new law, any faith groups unable to provide evidence of ownership risk losing these sites. The Serbian Orthodox Church – whose relations with the government are poor – claims this could allow the state to rob it of its property.
On February 14, in the first such meeting since parliament adopted the law, Church representatives submitted a list of proposed changes to Prime Minister Dusko Markovic.
The Church specifically urged the government to retract that part of the law that calls for a directorate to compile a register of all religious sites in Montenegro.
