Letter: Labouring under a misapprehension

THE complaint by the Montenegrin embassy in London over Iain Gray's comments on that country is a timely warning to those unionist political parties seeking to ridicule the achievements of small independent countries in order to belittle Scottish independence and, of course, to get their facts right (News, 2 January).

Montenegro achieved independence in 2006 after a referendum and is an official candidate for membership of the European Union. The statement that Montenegro was involved in 'ethnic cleansing', including references to 'a war crimes tribunal and a UN peacekeeping mission' is simply incorrect. It was also the only former Yugoslav republic where neither war nor devastation took place in the last decade of the 20th century.

Bizarrely, the previous UK Labour government had supported Montenegro's candidacy for membership of both the EU and NATO. And while it supported the holding of a referendum on independence for Montenegro, it is fervently opposed to holding one on Scotland's own constitutional future.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh