Security Tight in Montenegro For Thaci Visit

Montenegrin police have pledged to take all "preventative and, if necessary, repressive measures" to prevent incidents from disrupting the first official visit to Montenegro of the Foreign Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci - a controversial figure to some because of his past history as a guerrilla leader.

On Friday, Thaci will meet the country's top officials, including President Filip Vujanovic and Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic as well as visiting the mainly ethnic Albanian coastal town of Ulcinj.

However, a lecture scheduled for Thursday had to be cancelled for security reasons.

Protests have also been announced by Serbian refugees from Kosovo in the capital on Friday.

They bitterly oppose the visit of a former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, which fought a guerrilla war to terminate Serbian rule in Kosovo.

Several streets in the centre of Podgorica will be closed to traffic because of the protest rally, which is supported by pro-Serbian opposition parties and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

They accuse Thaci of being responsible for the deaths and expulsions of thousands of Serbs and Montenegrins from Kosovo in the war there in 1999.

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