Montenegrin national anthem author convicted for WWII war crimes - opposition
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - January 20, 2007, Saturday

Text of report by Montenegrin Mina news agency

Podgorica, 19 January: The Serb People's Party (SNS) asked the international community today to prevent the posthumous promotion of a Montenegrin war criminal, as the author of part of the national anthem was convicted for war crimes.

In a letter to the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, EU countries and US, SNS chairman Andrija Mandic pointed out that Sekula Drljevic, the author of part of the Montenegrin anthem "Oj svjetla majska zoro" [Oh, Bright Dawn of May], was convicted for WWII war crimes.

Mandic says in the letter that Drljevic glorified Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Ante Pavelic [leader of WWII Independent State of Croatia] and urged the Ustasha [WWII Croatian pro-Nazis] to commit crimes.

"A man with such a biography is the author of two of the four verses of the national anthem of Montenegro, the youngest European state. Historical documents prove this beyond doubt," he said.

The SNS leader believes that this appeal will encourage the international community to do its utmost in accordance with political responsibility so that they could together resolve this problem which was of a human, civilizational and political nature.

"We are alarmed to say the very least, as are citizens whom we represent in the Montenegrin parliament, as the toleration of such manifestations and public restraint would mean a retreat from the open promotion of Neo-Nazism in the heart of modern Europe," Mandic said.

SNS official Gojko Raicevic said at a news conference that his party would ignore the Montenegrin anthem as long as the "reassertion of Drljevic's deeds" remains.

He said that "citizens should respect state symbols and be loyal to the state in which they live only if these symbols and the state do not insult their dignity and threaten their rights".

"By ignoring the Montenegrin national anthem we express our respect for the huge number of Serb victims who suffered under Nazi ideology. By ignoring the current Montenegrin national anthem we express our support for the values on which contemporary Europe is based," Raicevic said.

Source: Mina news agency, Podgorica, in Serbian 1329 gmt 19 Jan 07

Copyright 2007 British Broadcasting Corporation
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