By Andrew L. Jaffee

Montenegrins have spoken: they’re done with being under the thumb of bully on the block, Serbia. They’re free, and can chart their own destiny. Lucky for Montenegro that it did not have to suffer through the Serbian rampages against the other former Yugoslav “republics” whose only crime was to reach for treasured independence. It is ironic that Slobodan Milosevic did not live long enough to see his neo-imperialist, socialist (not an oxymoron) dream of a “Great Serbia” fall into the ash-heap of history. From the Beeb:

Serbian President Boris Tadic has recognised the results of Montenegro’s vote for independence, in the first official response from Serbia.

“I accept the preliminary results reached by the referendum commission,” Mr Tadic told a news conference.

Official results of Sunday’s referendum in Montenegro put the pro-independence votes at 55.5% - just half a percentage point above the threshold for victory.

But a demand by pro-Serbian unionist parties for a recount was rejected.

Isn’t it usually the “socialists,” whose original dogma supposedly espoused the empowerment of humans, who cry the loudest when their empires crumble?

Let’s not forget Milosevic and his “socialist” imperialists’ legacy, after he became president of Serbia in 1990:

Serbia, with a population of 10 million, was the big kid on the block in Yugoslavia — the bully — just as Russians were in the old Soviet Union. Major Serbian bullying got under way in 1991 when the Slovenians declared independence from the Yugoslav federation. Yugoslav forces tried to quell the innate desire for independence, but failed, thank goodness. 100 people were needlessly killed. Slovenia is now free, and a charter member of both NATO and the EU. The Serbs didn’t want that. They wanted to dominate the Slovenes and siphon off their wealth and resources. Yugoslavia wanted to drag all the Balkans down to the lowest common denominator of “socialism” (e.g., centralized power and the enrichment of a chosen few like Slobodan Milosevic and his repulsive wife).

As the Yugoslav/Serbian bullies failed to demolish Slovenia, they turned their attentions to the Croats. Croats aren’t without sin. Some helped Hitler in WWII. No group is without sin, but Croats still deserve self-determination. Starting in 1991, the Yugoslav/Serb bullies tried to quell Croatia’s bid for independence. Both Serbs and Croats committed war crimes in the ensuing struggle, and are paying for their sins. But the Croats finally won their independence, thank goodness.

Not satisfied with trying to quell the autonomous urges of two nations, the Serbs turned their wrath against Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992, where they kicked their genocidal intentions into high gear. Serbs murdered 250,000 Bosnian citizens. The Serbs killed 7,000 Muslim boys and men in a single incident at Srebrenica. This isn’t conjecture. This is fact. A former Bosnian Serb army commander, Dragan Obrenovic, confessed to taking part in the massacre. Serbia-Montenegro’s president apologized (admitted guilt) to the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina for atrocities committed by Serbs during the 1992-1995 war. I admire his integrity for such a step. This proves not all Serbs are guilty of anything.

Failing to quell the free aspirations of a third nation, the Serbs turned their genocidal intentions against Kosovo in 1999. Serbian forces murdered between 5,000 and 12,000 Kosovo Albanians and deported 800,000. Only a sustained NATO bombing campaign, of course led by the U.S. over the objections of the European chicken-hearts, stopped the decade-long Serbian campaign of bullying.

The people of Montenegro are moving on, and turning to the West, not East:

The European Commission said Montenegro could begin talks with the EU on closer ties and eventual membership.

“The European perspective is open to Montenegro,” enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said.

What next for Montenegro?

Serbia has seen its EU ambitions hampered by the failure to arrest key war crimes suspects, but Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic was optimistic about his nation’s prospects.

“I am convinced Montenegro could be the next country from this region to join the European Union, after Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia, which are further along the process,” he told Reuters news agency.

You go Montenegro. Welcome to the free world.

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Related: Europe, Dictator Watch, Balkans

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