Thousands in Montenegro protest against NATO membership
Thousands of protesters have staged an anti-NATO rally outside Montenegro’s parliament in the capital Podgorica, opposing the government’s plan to join the military alliance and demanding a referendum on the matter.
An estimated 5,000 people took part in the Saturday’s protest rally reportedly organized by the tiny nation’s pro-Russia and pro-Serbia opposition parties, which have warned of a civil war if the government joins NATO without a national vote over the move.
"If the referendum is avoided and there is a bid to fraudulently pass the decision (on NATO membership) in parliament, Montenegro will be brought to the verge of a (civic) conflict," said the leader of pro-Russian opposition New Serb Democratic Party Andrija Madic in an address to the protesters.
"No to war -- no to NATO," read the placards carried by the protest participants as cited in an AFP report.
"NATO murderers," the protesters chanted during the rally as a number of them carried candles in memory of the victims of NATO’s bombing of the region in the 1990s.
After the disintegration of communist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Montenegro allied with Serbia in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at the time of an 11-week NATO bombing campaign in Kosovo in 1999.
The demonstration was held after NATO invited Montenegro on December 2 to join the US-led alliance as its 29th member, challenging Russia's opposition to what it has described as a threat to its security.
This is while the nation’s veteran Prime Minister Milo Djukanoy has strongly dismissed calls for a referendum on the issue.
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