Bosnia-Montenegro Border Row Heats up

Montenegrin opposition parties on Wednesday called on the government to deal more toughly with a new border dispute that has erupted after some Bosnian academics claimed a short stretch of the Montenegrin coast belonged by rights to Bosnia.

They have also demanded an urgent parliamentary hearing of the Foreign Minister, Igor Luksic. "Not an inch of the territory of Montenegro should be ceded to anyone," the leader of the "Positiv" Montenegrin opposition bloc, Darko Pajovic, said on Wednesday.

This border dispute is far from new and dates back to the time when both countries were republics in Yugoslavia.

However, the issue has revived in the past few months after several Bosnian intellectuals and NGOs presented documentation, which they said proved that the area of Sutorina had belonged to Bosnia until shortly after the Second World War.

Last Friday, Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic refused to sign the appointment of a new ambassador to Sarajevo because of the row.

He reminded the media that Bosnia had recognized Montenegro's independence in 2006 within its existing borders.
 
Meanwhile, the Bosnian Presidency is reportedly mulling similar measures, possibly including withdrawing the ambassador from Podgorica,al though no officials were willing to confirm this.

The Serbian vice-president of House of Representatives, one of two chambers of the Bosnian parliament, Mladen Bosic, on Wednesday said the issue should be resolved calmly. "I am surprised by how Montenegro reacted," he said, referring to the President.

"Stopping the appointment of the ambassador was too harsh. I don't see why it should be forbidden to open a discussion about the border," he added.

The Constitutional-Legal...