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Albright reaffirms international support for Montenegro |
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July 15, 2000
WASHINGTON, (AP) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reassured the leader of Montenegro Thursday that the U.S. still supports the Balkan nation in the face of Serbian hostility. In a phone call, Albright told Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic Thursday of the U.S. administration's plan to provide another dlrs 16.5 million for continued economic and political reform. In the last fiscal year, Washington has already allocated dlrs 60.56 million for assistance to Montenegro. On Monday, Djukanovic, angry at constitutional changes passed last week by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's government, said his nation is no longer part of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was once a federation that included a half-dozen Balkan republics, but in the past decade Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia seceded, leaving only Montenegro and its dominant partner, Serbia. But Djukanovic said that with the latest federal constitutional changes - and Montenegro's decision to ignore them - his republic has left Yugoslavia. Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic's regime has tried to provoke conflict in Montenegro, as well as excluding its representatives from the Yugoslavian parliament, the State Department noted. Last week, Milosevic succeeded in making changes to the Yugoslavian constitution, reducing Montenegro's role in the election of the federal president and the upper house of the legislature. Montenegro has rejected the amendments as illegitimate.
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