CETINJE, Montenegro (AP) – Riot police used tear gas against protesters who fired shots into the air and threw bottles and stones at Montenegro on Sunday before and during the inauguration of the new head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the country.
According to police and media reports, at least seven police officers and several protesters were injured in the clashes, while at least 14 people were arrested.
Sunday’s ceremony in Cetinje, the former capital of the small Balkan nation, has infuriated opponents of the Serbian church in Montenegro, which declared independence from neighboring Serbia in 2006.
On Saturday, hundreds of protesters clashed with police in Cetinje around a monastery where the inauguration of Metropolitan Joanikije took place after he and Serbian patriarch Porfirie arrived by helicopter, state RTCG reported.
The television station showed images of priests being led to the monastery by heavily armed riot police who had bulletproof vests over their bodies to protect them.
Protesters also set up road barriers with rubbish bins, tires and large rocks to try to prevent church and state dignitaries from coming to the inauguration.
Singing “This is not Serbia!” and “This is Montenegro!”, many of the protesters spent the night at the barriers amid reports that police were sending reinforcements to open the blockade. Protesters, some firing pistols into the air, set fire to car tires against one of the blockades, trying to prevent police from dispersing.
Montenegrins remain deeply divided over their country’s ties to neighboring Serbia and the Serbian Orthodox Church, which is the nation’s dominant religious institution. About 30% of Montenegro’s 620,000 people consider themselves Serbs.
Metropolitan Joanikije said after the ceremony that “the divisions have been artificially created and we have done everything we can to help eliminate them, but this will take a long time.”
The situation appeared in Cetinje in the early hours of Sunday after a relatively quiet night that followed after Saturday’s clashes and a parallel rally in the capital, Podgorica, where thousands of people greeted the patriarch. Serbian Porfirije and Metropolitan Joanikije before the inauguration.
In a clear demonstration of the strong political and social division in Montenegro, President Milo Djukanovic, the architect of the independence of the state of Serbia, visited Cetinje while the current Serbian Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic was going to Podgorica.
Krivokapic called the protests a “terrorist attempt,” while Djukanovic said he did not take sides as president of all citizens while praising protesters in Cetinje for protecting national interests against Serbia’s alleged bid to impose its influence in Montenegro through the Church.
Djukanovic has urged the postponement of the inauguration and some media on Saturday afternoon reported that this would happen, but the information was soon denied by the Serbian church which said the inauguration would take place despite tensions.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, whom the Montenegrin opposition has accused of intervening in its internal affairs in conjunction with Russia, congratulated Joanikije on his inauguration and praised the government for continuing the ceremony despite the clashes.
Vucic told pro-government television Prva in Belgrade that Serbia has no “aspirations” for Montenegro, “but only the closest and best relations.”
Since Montenegro seceded from Serbia, Montenegrin pro-independence activists have defended a recognized Orthodox Christian church that is separate from Serbia.
Montenegro’s main political parties exchanged accusations about who is to blame for the incidents.
Djukanovic’s Democratic Socialist Party said “citizens were protesting peacefully” for the right to live in a country that “will not be run and manipulated by a foreign state.” The responsibility lies with the “puppet government,” DPS said, referring to the current Serbian authorities.
According to a statement from the U.S. embassy, the U.S. government urged all parties to “urgently slow down the situation.”
“Religious freedom and freedom of expression must be respected, including peaceful assembly,” he said.
“We urge citizens not to vent their anger against the police as they try to defend public order and for the police to use only the means necessary to restore peace,” the statement said.
Joanikije’s predecessor as church leader in Montenegro, Amfilohije, died in October after hiring COVID-19.
The Serbian Orthodox Church played a key role in last year’s demonstrations that helped overthrow a long-standing pro-Western government in Montenegro. The new government now includes strongly pro-Serb and pro-Russian parties.
The former Montenegrin authorities led the country to independence from Serbia and challenged Russia to join NATO in 2017. Montenegro also wants to be a member of the European Union.
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Dusan Stojanovic and Jovana Gec contributed to this report from Belgrade, Serbia.