30.04.2009.
Interview of Minister Sutanovac to "Blic"
THERE IS NO REAL CONTROL OVER THE MILITARY SECURITY AGENCY
Each crisis, even the economic one, can affect the citizens’ safety. It brings the challenges of asymmetrical threats such as organized crime, sex trafficking, drug trafficking…The system of defense is being financed from the budget, and if there are not enough funds, let say, if there is such a situation as in 90s with a lot of tax evasion cases, the system of defense will be threatened, too,” says in his interview to Blic daily Minister of Defense Dragan Sutanovac.
This crisis is like a natural disaster. Several Governments fell due to the crisis, which shows that there is an objective problem to sustain the brunt of the economic crisis. It would be naïve to believe that the crisis can be avoided by savings. The Ministry saved 3.5 billion RSD last year. The progress of the crisis can only be slowed down by giving up on certain planned projects”, says Sutanovac.
How stable is the Government of Serbia?
No Government is immune to the economic crisis. You can say that thanks to the crisis we are more stable than the countries with no experience with economic crises, and thanks to an adequate response to the negative consequences of the crisis.
Is the Government stable and can it fall?
The Government is stable and there is no reason for its fall. There are those parties in Serbia which have been functioning on the same principle-the worse for the people, the better for us. They have a hard time accepting that they cannot offer any adequate solutions.
Will new elections be held next year, if the crisis starts to flag?
I don’t think that that is the right assessment.
However, the disputes in the government are becoming more apparent as the crisis progresses?
It is normal that the crisis causes fear, nervousness, and it is only natural that each ministry, in accordance with its projections and plans and promises, want more money for their budgets. I do not think that it is a bad thing that there are various opinions, but that it would be good if we talked about everything openly. Kostunica’s Government sugarcoated everything till the very end of its term, while practicing various backstabbing techniques.
Do you support the option to reduce the number of Ministries to 15-17?
People are deluded into believing hat the effectiveness of a Government depends on the number of ministries. Whether a Government should have 5, 15 or 50 ministries is debatable. The government can be smaller, yet the question is how effective can this government be. The results of the government cannot be to reduce the number of ministries, as that cannot be the goal. The purpose should be to realize plans, programs the citizens voted for.
Have you introduced internal control into the Military Security Agency?
We are introducing defense inspectorates into the Military Police, the Military Security and Intelligence Agencies, which haven’t existed so far , and do exist in democratic societies. It is much easier when there are three levels of controls.
Does that mean that you believe that there have been some abuses of the Military Security Agency?
There is not a secure effective mechanism to control these services. I trust the men who are the directors of these agencies, yet it is possible to abuse the methods and measures of these services and to do something illegal. Completely aware of that, it is our intention to appoint a new Inspector General and to demystify the work of these agencies, and for the minister of defense and the Government to be given any information as to any illegal activities. I have no doubt that these agencies are working everything by the book, but once the Inspector General is appointed, it will be easier on all of us, as no one could accuse the military services at will.
Serbia will not be sending soldiers to a NATO exercise in Georgia. Has there be any trouble in deciding this?
Any claim uncorroborated by documents means that this is either a wish to maintain popularity or to lose all responsibility.
The Ministry of Foreign stated that they wanted to cancel the participation of our soldiers in Georgia, but that you opposed this decision?
Everything the Ministry is doing is in the papers. The fact that someone is accused without any evidence testifies to someone’s bad intentions. The Ministry has a principled policy towards East and West, and the decision not to send our soldiers is in accordance with that.
Have these differences of opinion disrupted your relations with Minister Jeremic?
I do not think that that has anything to do with Minister Jeremic with whom I have successful collaboration.
Is Russia more important than the NATO?
We are bound by the Resolution on military neutrality. We must seek ways to cooperate, and not to find all the worst reasons to avoid cooperation. PfP offers us various types of exercises, and seminars at an annual level. The Serbian Armed Forces are the ones who decide where our troops will go, and after that neither MoD or SAF ask whether that is a good foreign policy decision or not. The Ministry of Foreign is the one which assess that and evaluates the decision.
