Word: montenegro
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...disintegration of Yugoslavia is not over yet. Eleven years of misrule and military adventurism by Slobodan Milosevic have whittled Serbia's partners in the federation down to one: Montenegro, a slice of mountainous, sun-bleached rock and 680,000 inhabitants wedged between the Serbian homeland and the limpid green waters of the Adriatic Sea. Since NATO jets bombed Milosevic out of Kosovo last year, Montenegro has been accelerating its tentative steps toward independence. But it has acted with the knowledge that the Serbian President could slam the door if he genuinely sensed his power base slipping. Now, with Milosevic facing...
Rising tensions in the republic have rung alarm bells in Washington, which backs the Montenegrin government as a bulwark against Milosevic and which now must decide what to do if the Serbian President moves against the U.S. ally, either with overt military action or a covert coup. Montenegro may be a very small place, but top Clinton Administration officials are saying it has the potential to produce the most serious foreign policy crisis of the waning days of the current Administration--or the first days of the next...
Slobodan Milosevic may be a thug, but he's a sly and nimble thug. He's chosen the U.S. election season as the moment to bring his confrontation with Montenegro to a head, mindful of the fact that the last thing Washington needs right now is to be dragged into yet another messy Balkan civil war. Milosevic on Thursday stunned his opponents by pushing constitutional changes through parliament that not only allow him to seek a fourth term of office but also diminish the already limited powers of Montenegro's government in the Yugoslav federation...
...Montenegro's pro-Western leadership now faces an acute dilemma that could have global consequences: It either backs away from its path of confrontation with Belgrade, or presses forward for full independence. Milosevic has called the bluff of Montenegro's President Milo Djukanovic, who has been moving steadily in the direction of seceding. Belgrade has now signaled clearly that it's willing to risk violent confrontation to keep its last non-Serb republic. The situation is fraught: Montenegro provides Yugoslavia's only access to the sea; in addition, some 30 percent of Montenegro's population remain loyal to Milosevic...
...Friday Montenegro's parliament passed a resolution rejecting Milosevic's constitutional changes. But that sets the scene for a showdown in the fall, when federal elections are due. Participating in the election means Montenegro's acceptance of the principle of rule from Belgrade, and even the idea doing the rounds in NATO circles of Djukanovic himself challenging Milosevic for the Yugoslav presidency is likely to be a non-starter - Belgrade's mooted anti-terrorism law would make the Montenegrin leader liable for arrest if he tried to campaign in Serbia. But rejecting the constitutional changes and pressing on toward independence...