Vucic to Meet Montenegrin Serbs After Coup Claims

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday that he would meet leaders of the pro-Serbian opposition in Montenegro, even though some of them have been accused of being involved in a plot to overthrow his Montenegrin counterpart Milo Djukanovic.

The leaders of the pro-Serbian opposition and Serb organisations demanded an urgent meeting with Vucic in Belgrade two weeks ago about what they said was the "intolerable situation" facing the Serb community in Montenegro, but Vucic told journalists that he had not meet them yet because he was too busy.

"I could do that in the next 10 to 15 days," he said after being asked if he had refused to meet them because of their alleged involvement in what the Montenegrin authorities have described as an attempted coup on election day on October 16.

The leader of pro-Serbian parties NOVA, Andrija Mandic, and the Democratic People's Party, Milan Knezevic, along with several representatives of Serb organisations and intellectuals, had asked to speak with Vucic about the pressure they said was being exerted on them in Montenegro.

Mandic's and Knezevic's parties are part of Montenegro's main opposition alliance, the Democratic Front, which strongly favours close ties between all Serbs in the region, while advocating friendly relations with Russia and opposing membership of NATO.

They said they wanted to meet Vucic because a campaign was being conducted against them in the Belgrade-based media and by Montenegrin branches of the Informer tabloid and broadcaster TV Pink.

Vucic said on Monday that he was "always ready to talk to Andrija Mandic and anyone who comes from Montenegro to talk".

Last week, Mandic met Milorad Dodik, the president of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, and it was...