Labour leader at centre of Balkan storm

IAIN Gray has become embroiled in a diplomatic row with the tiny Balkan state of Montenegro after he used the example of ethnic cleansing and war crimes in the region to bolster his attack on Scottish independence.

In parliament before Christmas, the Scottish Labour leader quoted a passage from the SNP website that states that the example of Montenegro "shows us just how easy it can be to become an independent country".

The website continues: "Forty days is all it took for Montenegro to regain her freedom. It could be Scotland next."

In a stormy exchange, Gray mocked the SNP's interpretation of events, adding: Yes - 40 days, two world wars, the Balkan conflict, ethnic cleansing, a war crimes tribunal and a United Nations peace-keeping mission."

That comment has now prompted an official complaint from the Montenegrin embassy in London, whose letter to Gray, sent last week, has been leaked.

In it, the Montenegro Charge D'Affairs, Marijana Zivkovic, writes: "I cannot help but feel deep regret about the way you chose to depict it (Montenegro] in your public statement." The sharply-worded letter to Gray has been copied to Labour leader Ed Miliband. Last night, the SNP said that Gray should withdraw his comments immediately.

Montenegro achieved independence in 2006 after a referendum and is an official candidate for membership of the European Union. In the letter to Gray, Zivkovic says: "Your statement that Montenegro was involved in 'ethnic cleansing' including your references to 'a war crimes tribunal and a UN peacekeeping mission' is simply incorrect.'

She adds: "It was the only former Yugoslav republic where neither war nor devastation took place in the last decade of the 20th century."

However, prior to independence, Montenegro was accused by the UN of human rights abuses during the savage conflict in Bosnia.

A 1992 resolution declared that the UN was "gravely concerned about the deterioration of the situation in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina owing to intensified aggressive acts by the Serbian and Montenegrin forces."

A Labour spokesperson said last night: "Iain Gray will reply to the Montenegrin embassy and inform them in full of his comments and the context he made them in. They should not be construed as a criticism of Montenegro.

"The SNP website's assertion that Montenegro's path to independence took 40 days … was facile and ignored the history of the wider region through two world wars and the dissolution of Yugoslavia. To re-establish statehood as a modern democracy was a remarkable achievement and should not be referred to glibly as ‘easy'."

But SNP president and Scotland MEP Ian Hudghton said: "Iain Gray regularly gets his facts wrong about Scotland at First Minister's Questions, but now he has blundered on a wider stage and caused embarrassment to his own leader in London."

Yesterday, it emerged that the SNP has launched an appeal to secure 1 million from its 16,000 members as it seeks to beat Labour at this year's Holyrood elections. It comes with Labour running at 4-1 on to win May's parliamentary elections.