Proud Montenegro reclaims lost sovereignty

Brooding mountains, rushing rivers and a sparkling Adriatic coast give the world's newest independent state an operatic landscape, to match political antics that have at times verged on the comic.

With the population of a medium-sized city and plenty of forests, and bays to go around, Montenegro is betting that a tourism boom coupled with European Union membership will banish any suspicion that it is no more than an eccentric backwater.

In a referendum with a turnout of over 85 per cent, the ancient Balkan principality broke with Serbia after nearly a century in its shadow, once more rejigging the map in Europe's most turbulent corner.

Sunday evening television was interrupted barely half an hour after polls closed, with the breathless prediction that the yes camp had won hands down - a forecast later reeled back to a more sober prediction.

The streets of the sleepy capital of Podgorica erupted in a riot of celebration that included gunfire, de rigeur in the Balkans. At two in the morning, after a suitably theatrical pause, hero-of-the-hour Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic greeted his delirious supporters.

"We've got our state," he smiled, triggering chants of "Long Live Montenegro" and "Milo, Milo", for the man sometimes lampooned in Serbia as the would-be monarch of a cosy, semi-private state.

Mr Djukanovic, Montenegro's leader since 1991 and a byword for political ambition in the Balkans, campaigned for a decade to separate his country from Serbia.

He will be credited with reinstating the sovereignty lost to the 20th century fashion for federations, his clean-shaven and aloof face taking its place in a pantheon of Montenegrin heroes going back to the days of moustachioed prince-bishops.

On Sunday evening, adoring crowds carried aloft gilt-framed portraits of their champion along boulevards choked with honking cars and a sea of red and gold flags while champagne popped in wood-panelled government offices.

The atmosphere was reminiscent of the arrival of President Rufus T. Firefly of Freedonia, Groucho Marx's mythical Balkan state in the 1933 classic, Duck Soup.

There are only some 650,000 people in Montenegro, but they have the scenery and the sea. Serbia has 7.5 million people, and its sea has been one of troubles for the last 15 years.

Mr Djukanovic not only picked the right time to pop the big question but scheduled enough high-profile, feel-good projects to help along his campaign.

A new airport terminal was inaugurated a week before the vote. An equestrian statue of Montenegro's august last monarch was unveiled in December to grace the capital's park of plane and sycamore trees.

A gleaming new bridge added a dash of modernity to Podgorica, spanning the fast-flowing, emerald waters of the Moraca River. And not least, an uncritical media trumpeted the independence line as flags sprouted from more and more balconies. Montenegro's decision closes the final chapter in the story of Yugoslavia, the socialist federation of six republics that emerged after World War II and which is missed by many who watched it stagger when its first strongman Tito died, then drown in blood under his would-be successor, Slobodan Milosevic.

Some country road signs still bear the capital's redolent former name, Titograd.

Like Macedonia in 1991, Montenegro bids farewell to Serbia without a shot being fired. Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia all had to fight to get free, facing varying degrees of Serbian armed wrath - the Slovenes for 10 days, the Croats and Bosnians for four years and 200,000 dead.

But the wars of the 1990s are slowly slipping into history, and it is the alluring future of freedom-loving statelets in the stabilising embrace of the European Union that excites investors.

"There is a lot of prejudice about Montenegro, that it is just attracting shady capital," said one Western banker based in the region. "But there are good things happening investment-wise. There's potential in tourism, real estate development and infrastructure."

"If the Montenegrins are smart and do not start making shady deals," she said, "the market will open up even more."

A profile of Montenegro

History
The area of present-day Montenegro was populated by Slavs in the sixth century, evolving into a feudal state that went in and out of Byzantine and later Ottoman control. It developed a unique system of administration, combining the rule of prince-bishops and national and clan councils. It became de facto independent in the late 18th century and proclaimed a kingdom in 1910, but was incorporated into Serbia after World War I. It was reinstated as one of six equal republics in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It stuck by Serbia when Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia and Bosnia declared independence in the early 1990s in the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia. The rump Yugoslavia was renamed State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2003.

Ethnic make-up
Of Montenegro's 620,000 people, 43.2 per cent say they are Montenegrin, 32 per cent Serb, 7.7 per cent Bosnian, five per cent Albanian and four per cent Muslim.

The official language is the Montenegro variant of Serbian, increasingly called Montenegrin, which has a lot in common with Bosnian and Croatian. Albanian is the second official language in areas where Albanians make up the majority of the population. The Orthodox Church is predominant, with Islam as the second religion. Roman Catholics and smaller Christian sects are represented as well as Judaism.

Geography
At 13,812 square kilometres, Montenegro borders Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo and Albania. Montenegro means "Black Mountain" and thick forest covers almost 55 per cent of the land. Its varied topography makes for four different climate zones, with sunny beaches on the Adriatic coastline, rainy limestone hills overlooking fjords, fertile lowlands along river valleys and high mountain ranges. The Tara River canyon is the deepest and longest in Europe.

Podgorica, formerly Titograd, is the administrative capital and biggest city. The official capital is Cetinje, the royal seat of the mediaeval state.

Politics and government
Montenegro is a republic, with the President as head of state and the Prime Minister as head of the executive. The main parties in the 75-seat Parliament are the ruling, pro-independence Democratic Party of Socialists and Social Democrats and the pro-union Socialist People's Party and Serb People's Party.

Economy
The mainstays of the former socialist economy were heavy industry, agriculture and maritime services, all of which were hit by the sanctions and wars of the 1990s.

The government is trying hard to erase the image of mafia-ridden lawlessness the country acquired in that time and to attract investors, especially in tourism along the Adriatic coast, which it sees as the main growth sector.