Montenegro Votes to Secede From Serbia

Montenegro Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic sprays champagne in jubilation in front of the government office in Podgorica, Serbia-Montenegro, late Sunday, May 21, 2006, after independent monitoring group said Montenegro voted for independence in a referendum. The Center for Monitoring said 56.3 percent of voters opted for independence from much larger Serbia. The European Union has said the vote for independence would be valid if more that 55 percent of those who cast their ballots voted in favor. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) (Darko Vojinovic - AP)

Montenegro's pro-independence camp argued the impoverished but spectacular country of soaring mountains and stunning Adriatic coastline was being stifled by Serbia. The ruling group said breaking away would boost the economy and speed the country's path to joining Slovenia, also a former Yugoslav republic, in the prosperous European Union.

The pro-Serbian camp said Montenegro, with a population of 620,000, is too small to be viable on its own.

Once an independent kingdom, Montenegro was erased from the map after World War I and merged into the newly formed Yugoslavia. Many Montenegrins resisted and a seven-year guerrilla war followed.

After World War II, the six-republic Yugoslavia became communist.

During the federation's violent breakup in the 1990s, Montenegro's leaders sided with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who died recently while on trial before a U.N. war crimes tribunal.

But relations soured, and the EU brokered a deal in 2002 to keep Serbia and Montenegro together.

EU spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tardio said the European Commission was still awaiting final confirmation of the results from international vote observers, but welcomed that the referendum "was carried out in a calm manner and with high turnout, which is important for the legitimacy of the vote."

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn called on "all Montenegrin parties and citizens to preserve their unity and to build a consensus on the unity of the republic, on the basis of European values and standards."

Altafaj Tardio said that once the results of the independence vote had been confirmed, the commission would move to draft a proposal to start talks on a separate aid and trade pact with Montenegro.

Talks on a so-called stability and association agreement, meant to ready non-EU countries for possible EU membership, began last year with Serbia-Montenegro.