The Patriarch wants to decrease pressure by Montenegro on Serbs

29/3/2011

Three days before beginning of population census in Montenegro, the church officials have interfered in political and state issues. The Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Muslim religious leaders called on their compatriots in Montenegro yesterday to ‘gather around their religion, nation and language’. People that the ‘Blic’ talked with say that church instructions are encouragement for compatriots, threats for the other side, but that they also violate international conventions.

Serbian Patriarch Irinej called on the Serbs in the region to declare in the census as ‘the Serbs of Orthodox religion freely and without fear’ as posted on the site of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Just a couple of hours later the instruction came from the Muslim Community, too. The Reis-ul-ulema of the Islamic Community in Bosnia/Herzegovina Mustafa Ceric and the Chief Mufti of the Islamic Community in Serbia Muamer Zukorlic called on the Bosniacs in Montenegro and Kosovo/Metohija to gather ‘around their nation, religion and language’ in the census.

By letter and video messages Ceric and Zukorlic advised them to declare as ‘the Bosniacs and Islamists speaking the Bosniac Language’.

Religious analyst Mirko Djordjevic says for ‘Blic’ that it is not in the spirit of the Serbian Orthodox Church to send such messages and that by doing so ‘the Church has stepped out of its mission’.

The most severe reactions came from Montenegro where tensions are mounting ahead of the census. Those messages shall not calm down ‘the anti-Serbian hysteria’ as Ranko Kadic, leader of the Montenegrin non-parliamentary DSS characterized yesterday the atmosphere in Montenegro ahead of the census while he yesterday, out of protest, handed to the Embassy of Serbia in Podgorica a request for Serbian citizenship.

The authorities in Serbia are of the opinion that the atmosphere of pressure on Serbs in Montenegro has acquired such dimension that it was necessary for the Patriarch Irinej to encourage the Serbs to declare freely ‘as they feel’. Sources close to Serbian Government told the ‘Blic’ that the Serbian Patriarch decided to send his message regarding the census without consultation with the authorities in Belgrade. We were also told by these sources that ‘in recent time Serbs in Montenegro are complaining about the pressure being made on them to declare as the Montenegrins’.

‘Obviously the authorities in Montenegro have a problem arising from the fact that in previous census only 43 percent of the population declared themselves as the Montenegrins. Now the authorities have the plan to ‘secure’ the Montenegrin majority and that is possible only if the Serbs declare themselves as the Montenegrins. Namely, they know that they cannot expect anything of the kind from the Muslims’, an unofficial source from Serbian Government says for the ‘Blic’.

‘The Patriarch’s message is only to encourage the Serbs not to fear to declare as they feel. Serbian nation in Montenegro has the right to fully affirm its own national and cultural identity and the Patriarch’s message has to be seen in that light. I hope that our compatriots in Montenegro shall have the opportunity to declare freely because that does not represent a threat to anyone’, this source adds.

Daliborka Uljarevic, Executive Director of the Center for civil education in Podgorica says for the ‘Blic’ that the Frame convention on protection of national minorities but also the Montenegrin Constitution guarantee the right to every citizen NOT to declare nationally, ethnically and religiously, while the message by the Serbian Patriarch represents ‘limitation of human rights guaranteed by international documents’.

‘Both the ruling and opposition parties and now the church have failed on this test’, Uljarevic says.

Population census in Kosovo/Metohija and Bosnia/Herzegovina shall cause additional tensions. The Board for KiM of Serbian Parliament yesterday insisted that the Serbs boycott the census organized by authorities in Pristina and requested census to be carried out by the UN.

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