Prince seeks restoration of monarchy in Serbia

SERBIA:  Serbia's crown prince has urged his countrymen to restore the monarchy once it formally splits from Montenegro, but pro-union supporters in the Adriatic republic have filed an official complaint about last Sunday's referendum on sovereignty.

The bloc opposing Montenegro's independence alleges irregularities at 187 polling stations, involving more than a quarter of the 420,000 votes cast in the referendum, which the European Union has accepted as free and fair.

The leader of the antiindependence group, Predrag Popovic, said the problems included incomplete voter lists, people voting twice and at least 5,700 voters who had residency outside Montenegro, a republic of 650,000 people. Mr Popovic ruled out a complaint to the constitutional court, which he accuses of bias towards proindependence prime minister Milo Djukanovic, and said he was appealing instead to the EU in the shape of Slovak diplomat Frantisek Lipka, who chairs Montenegro's referendum commission.

Serbian leaders have said they will accept the outcome of the referendum - which according to official preliminary results handed a narrow victory to the pro-independence camp - once official results are published.

Mr Lipka has mentioned tomorrow as the likely day of their publication, but a large number of complaints could delay a final announcement.

"We are waiting for the official results of the referendum," Belgrade's foreign minister Vuk Draskovic said yesterday during a visit to Estonia. "Serbia will accept and fully respect the result."

"Immediately after that, the government will start talks on practical issues, without any sanctions, of course," he added. "We Serbs and Montenegrins will start the process of state divorce, and we will do it in the best way."

Mr Draskovic is the leading advocate of the restoration of Serbian royalty to the throne, 65 years after they fled the invading Nazis.

The communist Marshal Tito, who ran Yugoslavia from 1945 until his death in 1980, told them to stay abroad in exile.

"It is time for us Serbs to completely dedicate ourselves to our Serbia," said Crown Prince Alexander at the White Palace in Belgrade, to which he returned in 2001 following the collapse of communism and the toppling of president Slobodan Milosevic.

"Too much blood has been spilt, too much strength of the people has been wasted, too much reputation has been lost in the 20th century and even in the 21st century, with few positive results," said the westerneducated prince, who was born in exile in 1945.

"We cannot waste any more precious time. Now is the golden time for Serbia to put itself in order, according to its measures. That measure is the kingdom of Serbia." Polls show about a third of Serbs favour a constitutional monarchy, and very few vehemently oppose it if it brings unity and stability.

Montenegro's crown prince Nikola (61) received a rapturous reception in his homeland before the independence vote.

The Paris-based architect, who regularly visits Montenegro on his motorbike, has called for the rehabilitation rather than restoration of the Montenegrin monarchy, and the return of some of his family's former residences.