OLY: Serb fail to adopt new anthem in time for Games

AAP General News (Australia)
08-12-2004
OLY: Serb fail to adopt new anthem in time for Games

BELGRADE, Aug 11 Reuters - Olympic athletes from Serbia and Montenegro are stuck with
a widely despised national anthem for the Games after parliament failed today to endorse
a last-minute replacement for the Socialist-era Yugoslav hymn.

An opposition party from Montenegro changed its mind and helped defeat a motion to
hold an emergency vote on the anthem after a compromise song was denounced by the Orthodox
Church as a "centaur" - half-man, half-beast - that offended everyone.

No vote is now expected until September, officials said.

Nationalistic Serb sports fans have taken to booing the current anthem, "Hej, Sloveni!"

(Hey, Slavs!), disdaining its pan-Yugoslav and socialist sentiments.

Had the emergency debate gone ahead, parliament could have chosen to adopt a proposed
replacement that combines elements of the pre-World War II royal anthem and a traditional
song recently adopted by Montenegro, junior partner in the union with Serbia that has
officially replaced the old federal Yugoslavia.

On Tuesday, however, Serbian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Pavle slammed the compromise,
apparently persuading at least the Montenegro Socialist People's Party to turn against
it.

"What influenced us not to vote for the urgent procedure is the moral weight and the
importance of the Patriarch's person," the party's Zoran Zizic said.

REUTERS jds

KEYWORD: OLY SERBIA ANTHEM

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