Djukanovic's Chastises Albanians in Montenegro as "Equal"

"Montenegro 'Respects Rights' of Ethnic Albanians"

Milo Djukanovic, the leader of Montenegro's ruling party, says that the country's ethnic Albanian minority had a shared interest in supporting its independence.

Vijesti

The Montenegrin authorities do not "owe anything" to ethnic Albanians in Montenegro for their support in the referendum that led to Montenegro's declaration of independence from Serbia in 2006, Djukanovic said in an interview for Kosovo's Ora 24 TV.

Djukanovic, the former prime minister and president and current head of the Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, said that the ethnic Albanian minority in Montenegro enjoyed full rights.

Arguing that independence was a shared interest of both the ethnic Albanian population in the country and the government in Podgorica, Djukanovic said that ethnic Albanians supported Montenenegro's breakaway from Serbia because they wished to exercise their civil rights.

“The Albanian minority got what they asked with Montenegro’s independence – a state in which they exercise an enviable level of their rights,” he told the broadcaster.

He added that he did not support the idea of the partition of Kosovo- dividing the northern majority Serb area from the rest of the country- because it could “open the door for similar solutions in other countries in the region”.

Djukanovic, however failed to mention that in 2005 he promised an Albanian-American delegation that Albanians in the Malesia/Tuzi region would receive an independent municipality equal to the 21 others in existence.  He has reneged on that promise several times over in the past few years and imposed laws that make it more difficult to challenge the illegal law on Territorial Organization.  Moreover, the recent law prohibiting the display of national flags has further stagnated progress for Albanians in Montenegro to the point where international laws may have been infringed.