Barred from Montenegro, bishop starts hunger strike

SERBIA-MONTENEGRO BORDER, Aug 29 (Reuters) A Serbian Orthodox bishop who has been barred from Montenegro on suspicion of aiding war crimes fugitives pitched a tent at the border and said he was going on hunger strike in protest.

The United Nations tribunal in The Hague has put Bishop Filaret on a list of people suspected of helping four ethnic Serb suspects from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s evade justice.

Montenegro, keen to get the Hague's support for its progress towards European Union membership, turned the bishop away twice this summer when he was trying to visit parts of his diocese that are on Montenegrin soil.

When Filaret tried to enter the country again yesterday morning, he was stopped by some 20 policemen. He returned at noon, pitched a tent on no-man's land, complete with a power generator, and put up a banner saying ''Hunger Strike Day 1''.

''I will stay here until my requests are fulfilled, or until my life ends,'' Filaret said, sitting on a wicker armchair at the Rance crossing, a few metres from the Montenegrin border sign.

The portly, white-bearded Filaret is one of several Serb Orthodox bishops known for their nationalist sympathies. He wanted to deliver the obituary at the funeral of Serb autocrat Slobodan Milosevic in March 2006.

He denied all contact with the Hague's top fugitives, former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic and his political boss Radovan Karadzic, both indicted for genocide in the 1992-95 Bosnia war.

''I don't know where Karadzic and Mladic are,'' Filaret said.

''I last saw Radovan Karadzic in 1994, in Pale.'' The controversy has deepened the chill between Montenegro and Serbia since the coastal Adriatic republic voted to leave its 90-year union with its larger sister state in May last year.

The political unease also has a religious aspect.

Montenegro's predominantly Orthodox population mostly follow the Serbian Orthodox Church, but since the two nations split, this dominance is challenged by the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, which is not recognised by other Orthodox communities.

Belgrade authorities stepped in earlier this month to support the bishop, saying his religious rights were violated.

Filaret said apart from his hunger strike, he was also lodging a complaint with Montenegro's President Filip Vujanovic.

But Vujanovic said Montenegro was just following recommendations by The Hague and the Council of Europe.

''It is a question of relationships and cooperation with the international community,'' Vujanovic told local media. ''We must cooperate in all areas, including justice.'' Reuters RKM VP0450