The modest discharge of celebratory gunfire following the re-election of Monte-negro's young and reforming Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic would have been drowned out by the cheering from the leaders of Western European nations. Djukanovic is not a saint - indeed few politicians of that persuasion are to be found in federal Yugoslavia - but his early days as a rabid nationalist in the Slobodan Milosevic mould are long gone. What appears to have changed him is the economic devastation visited on Yugoslavia by a combination of Milosevic's warped policies and the sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia by the international community as a result of Milosevic's attempts to fulfil the Serbian national dream.
Djukanovic's estrangement from Milosevic and his re-election on a platform of reform is exceedingly bad news for the president of federal Yugoslavia. Milosevic had hoped for a victory in Montenegro for like-minded politicians who would have enabled him to alter
the federal constitution, thus securing another term as president beyond the one which ends in three years. Djukanovic has ended that dream and may even oppose Milosevic's policy in Kosovo, where heightened violence is reported. Hope for the future can, it seems, rise in the most unexpected of places.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article