Rebranding Montenegro

An interesting op-ed piece in Saturday's Express raises the possibility of a rebirth of Montenegrin ethnic group in Kosova. The author reminds us that Montenegrins were prominently mentioned along with Serbs as victims in the 80's only to disappear in the early 90's from state official vocabulary. Even in Rambuillet, when Serb delegation collected state-supporting members from the minorities as part of its delegation, Montenegrins did not feature on it. With Serb state handling all the pertinent and non-pertinent issues, I doubt UNMIK has heard of such a notion either, despite the fact that a significant number of refugees from Kosovo reside in Montenegro.

By observation, where Serbs and Montenegrins lived side by side to allow us a comparison (W and NW of KS), Montenegrins eclipsed their brothers in terror. And Milosevic and Karadzic are Montenegrins. But now that Montenegro is an independent country, it is likely that Podgorica will try to rebrand its people along with its own image.

The fact that Yugoslavia or Serbia does not figure anymore in the name of your country will be helpful in developing international tourism. It might even work with coexistence in Kosovo. It certainly helps that Montenegro stayed out of the war and does not have territorial ambitions towards Kosovo.