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Burning barricades: the access roads had been blocked since Saturday
Photo: STEVO VASILJEVIC / REUTERS
The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro has a new head.
The consecration of Metropolitan Joanikijec was accompanied by protests lasting several days.
Dozens of people were injured.
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Ethnic tensions: Protests before the inauguration of the head of the church in Montenegro
During violent demonstrations against the inauguration, protesters fought with the police on Sunday in Cetinje in the south of the country.
The background to the protests are ethnic tensions between Serbs and non-Serbs in the small Balkan state.
According to the authorities, around 50 people were injured in the riots and 14 demonstrators were arrested.
The designated Metropolitan Joanikije and the Patriarch Porfirije had to be flown in by helicopter to the ceremony under police protection after the demonstrators had blocked all access roads to the city since Saturday.
On the eve of the inauguration, angry demonstrators broke police barriers and set up roadblocks on the outskirts.
They shouted slogans like “This is not Serbia!” And “Long live Montenegro!”.
The Serbian Orthodox Church is the most important religion in Montenegro, but many Montenegrins see it as being influenced by Belgrade.
Burning tires and shots in the air
A correspondent for the AFP news agency reported that numerous demonstrators had spent the night on the street and kept warm by the fires.
Some were armed and fired in the air, others set fire to tires as barricades.
They wanted to prevent the church representatives from getting to the monastery, which many Montenegrins consider to be a national symbol of the sovereignty of their state because of its history.
Metropolitan Joanikije said at the ceremony on Sunday that he wanted to "serve fraternal reconciliation."
He added that the "split" had been "provoked".
Montenegro gained independence from Serbia in 2006.
Almost a third of the 620,000 inhabitants define themselves as ethnic Serbs.
Some still deny Montenegro's independence to this day.
The government in office since December is considered close to the church.
In the same month it amended a law introduced by President Milo Djukanovic's Socialist Party to make hundreds of Serbian Orthodox monasteries state-owned.
President Djukanovic also took part in the protests against the inauguration of the new Metropolitan in Cetinje.
asc / AFP