13.05.2010.

Press conference of Minister Sutanovac

Minister of Defense Dragan Sutanovac, along with the Head of the Military Medical Academy Major General prof. Miodrag Jevtic and the head of the Military Academy Mladen Vuruna held a press conference in the Government of the Republic of Serbia dedicated to the current admission process of the new generation of cadets of MA and MMA.

Minister Sutanovac stated that the results of the military education were impressive, as these results have not repeated themselves in decades. The number of applicants has reached an impressive number 1259 young men and women for a total of 240 openings, which means that 5.25 applicants will compete for one place.

Last year, as he said, there were 200 applicants less, for the same number of openings, that is, 4.4 for one place, while only 4 years ago only 21 high school graduates applied for the military academy.

As a special success Sutanovac states that the members of ethnic minorities were the one to be the majority of applicants, including 19 Hungarians, two members of the Bunjevac, two Slovaks, six members BH, five members of the Roma people, and one a member of the Gorani people, a Romanian, a Montenegrin, where 371 applicants were A graders.

Minister pointed out that there was an ongoing admission process for the second generation of MMA cadets where 209 applicants applied for 25 positions, 121 of whom are A graders, 51 of them graduating with honors. He added that it would be interesting to compare the parameters with other university institutions.

AS for the December class of conscripts, Sutanovac said that they would be dismissed on 31 May, upon the order of the President of the Republic of Serbia,, reminding that this generation was enlisted in the period 25-27 January due to the outbreak of the H1N1 epidemic. This order of the President was made upon the proposal of the Minister of Defense.

Announcing that the act of establishing the Military University would soon be signed where military engineers and military doctors besides officers would be educated. This would rank Serbia among those countries with a military university. Military University in his opinion could offer its services beyond the Serbian borders.

As for the admission process to the Military Academy, the Head of the Academy LTG Mladen Vuruna stated that the first part including maths and a test of physical aptitude. He said that the average number of points was 25 out of maximum 45 which is a significantly better result that the average number of points scored in the previous years, where the average results of the physical aptitude tests were also very good. General Vuruna said that all those who met the criteria were now to undergo medical checkup, when the final list of accepted candidates will be published.

The average number of those passing the exams has increased by 10%, where the average grade went from 0.6 to 1% depending on the study program. This year according to preliminary results, candidates were even better.

Head of the MMA expressed his pleasure with the results of the first class of cadets, that is, military students of medicine, who passed all exams with an average grade 8.94. two cadets are straight A students.

Jevtic said that Serbian and foreign medical study programs enriched the study program of MMA which will enable the graduates to be both officers and doctors.

He said that the candidates were undergoing medical and psychology tests, and all applicants will take the entry exam. The test will be the same as the test for other medical studies in Serbia. The fact that a large number of prospective applicants from all parts of Serbia were interested which bespeaks of the trust and reputation of MMA.

As for the reporters’ questions regarding Serbia’s mission in NATO HQ in Brussels, minister said that it would be finalized within the planned deadline, when the participation of SAF in another three peace missions should start, adding that there were ongoing talks regarding this matter. Deploting an AMET team in Uganda, even though France was also an interested party, was cancelled as local doctors will be engaged. However, as he mentioned, they would soon get info for other two missions, as they are being prepared at the moment, thus expressing his expectation that they would be realized within this year.

With respect to the Satelite scandal, there is a possibility that a art of funds will be compensated to Serbia, as minister said stating that Serbia would most certainly be interested in getting at least a part of the sum in question. Since MoD did not have any part in this, even though it has delegated one representative on the panel. This representative, Assistant Minister for Material Resources, will inform the minister what could be compensated.

He could not specify whether Serbia will have to just pay the damages, just because the Israeli company lost money, or that it would get something in return. If there is such an option, a representative of MoD, who is familiar with the Israeli defense industry, will certainly be on the team o negotiators.

AS for the issue of responsibility of former minister Davinic, each responsibility is solely personal, expressing his hope that the legal system would find the basis to bring the responsible party before the court, as the damage is enormous.

Concerning the reopening of the case of those soldiers killed in 2004 and 2005, Sutanovac said that that was an attempt to bring the repute of the army down to those eyars when these events occurred. The Serbian Armed Forces, as he underlined, was not there to investigate, adding that it is clear in a legally harmonized state, who is responsible for investigation and pre-investigation jobs.

Adding that the minister has talked with the families of those killed in Leskovac and in 1999, the minister said that he was not able to amend of influence courts’ decisions.
They should address this issue to the judiciary system.

As regards the issue whether MoD is engaged in forming an Academy is Libya, Minister said that there were ongoing preliminary talks as certain countries had expressed interest to form Military Academies based on the experiences of our academy.

As for the decision dated in 1990 about allocating the JNA stadium to Partizan, it was not legally founded. Another proceedings was launched in 1997 and then in 2007, which was to revise this decision. The minister expressed his hope that MoD would reach an agreement with Partizan, and that they do not mean usurpation of any sports venue.