Bosnian Professor's Claim to Montenegrin Coast Falls Flat

Jusuf Mulic, a former rector of the University of Sarajevo, told the Bosnian daily, Dnevni avaz, early in August, that part of the Montenegrin coast had once belonged to Bosnia - and Bosnia should ask for it back.

He said that the areas of Sutorina and Krusevica, in Montenegro's Boka Bay, had been part of Bosnia for several centuries.

But in 1936, he said, they were annexed to the so-called Zetska banovina, an administrative unit of the then unitary kingdom whose territory roughly matched the borders of the present state of Montenegro.

Mulic urged Bosnia to sue its neigbour if it refuses to settle the issue "in  a nice way". On Sunday, he repeated his appeals to Bosnian state officials.

"It is very important that there is no interstate agreement between BiH and Montenegro about the cession of Sutorina to Montenegro," he declared.

Although Mulic's proposal was given space in some media across the region over the last few days, it has failed to make headlines in Montenegro.

Ranko Krivokapic, Montenegro's speaker, told Dnevni avaz on Sunday that a 1956 demarcation agreement between Montenegro and Bosnia, then both part of the Yugoslav federation, had left only the issue of one cadastral unit unresolved.

Mustafa Begic, a former member of the Bosnian Borders Commission, also said that "the struggle for Sutorina" was doomed to failure.

At the begining of June, Filip Vujanovic, President of Montenegro, stated that that the border agreement between the two countries was now being finalized.