22.01.2011.
Interview of Minister Sutanovac to "Dnevnik"
The Serbian President and DS leader Boris Tadic has not met with the leader of the Progressive Party, Tomislav Nikolic – as one of closes associates Tof adic, Defence Minister and Vice President of DS Dragan Sutanovac of the Democrats states adamantly.
- It is not fair to say anything about the coalition partners, but the SPS leader Ivica Dacic has its reasons for the statements released to the media. However, I do not understand these reasons because of the fact that the president did not meet with the opposition leaders nor has he agreed upon the formation of the future government - the minister said in an interview to the Dnevnik daily. "
Furthermore, as the Minister of Defense has revealed to us the clergy would be restored in the Serbian Armed Forces after decades and soon the University of Defence will be formed, to which apart from traditional sciences military science will be added into the study program.The English "Economist" states that the chance for Serbia’s recovery is its export in arms. If we bear in mind the recent accidents in defense industry factories, do we have qualified people and adequate facilities to make a serious emergence in the world military market?
- First, I do not think that the export of arms and military equipment export is our only chance. On the contrary, I think that Serbia has great potential and that agriculture is one of its greatest potentials, but that the defense industry has managed to find its way around quickly and allow our factories to obtain the export business had 20 years. In three and a half years of my term in office of the Ministry of Defense we managed to contracted jobs that are worth more than 1.2 billion USD, which is a respectable figure. It is indisputable that we have an even greater potential to emerge on the foreign markets, but we'll have to invest in factories in 1999 which were run down during the NATO aggression.
As for the causes of accidents, you have mentioned, the answers will be given by the investigators and, if necessary, measures and actions against possible culprits will be taken. But the fact is that the equipment is outdated and obsolete, and that the human factor is the most common cause of such events.
You participated in the events of 5th October, when the fist democratic government was established in January 2001. Since then, in the past ten years, it seems that Serbia has completed only reforms in one sector-the defense sector?
- I recently reminded MPs in the Serbian Parliament of all parties in 2000 who then signed the "Covenant with the People", promised that we will have a professional, modern army, rubbing shoulders with the best armies of the world, according to the NATO standards, and we did it in a timely manner, which was started by the defense minister in 2003.
- This is a huge reform not only in the defense system, but involving the entire society. A number of countries in Europe have carried it out, and some countries, like Germany and Austria, it was the plan to fully reform the army.
What is the plan of building military bases and the relocation of military facilities in cities such as Novi Sad?
- We have done serious analysis of infrastructure in the barracks, keeping in mind that they are quite old. We would like, where possible to leave the cities in order to get new and modernly equipped army barracks outside the city zone. That is the plan for Belgrade, where a preliminary design for the relocation of the military base is to the area Majurska ade. The soil is wetland and the construction presents a problem, but it is possible to build a barracks there. But to a large extent this depends on the city of Novi Sad, which will be participating in that, making it possible to build a military base. Specifically, the Army would leave certain barracks, and they in return would get a property value at Majurska ada.
Relocation of the army from the Petovaradin fortress is a condition as it has been placed under the protection of UNESCO?
- We look forward to relocating the our establishments from the fortress and to regulating this issue with local government, of course, only if the City of Novi sad sees an interest in this to get property in return.
Many military analysts estimate that our whole region would be more stable, if Serbia joined the NATO?
- This is a political issue whether to get the NATO membership and in some future time we will have to consider this, but the standardization of military interoperability - that we can together to perform anywhere in the world – raising our operating capability to a level as a unit in NATO ... all this is certainly welcome and at the present time.
At one point there was an ongoing discussion whether Serbia should join NATO referendum or not. Has your opinion that this is an issue that should be decided on at the referendum changed in the meantime?
-I have never been against referendum. I think I made it crystal clear that the great things in the country are largely solved thanks to the leadership of the political elites or an individual. This is simply a political message not only for those who engage in politics. In reference to that, I said that had Vuk Karadzic’s reform of our language been an issue decided on at referendum, it would never have passed. Had it been a matter of referendum, the reform pursued by Kemal Ataturk in Turkey also would not have passed. It is almost impossible to find any country in the world where big changes were decided upon at a referendum.
The standards have been changing from Ataturk to date, and Europe has shown that the main standard for all issues is a referendum?
- Europe has demonstrated that, but we need to reach Europe’s or Switzerland’s standard of living, for example, which opts for a referendum at local levels and when the roadmap fore a certain issue has yet to be drawn. I'm afraid that such a comparison is not based on realistic life. That same Europe is already in NATO, the EU, so we need first to reach that level in order to be compared with them.
The motto of the election campaign of the Democratic Party in the last elections was "European Serbia", i.e. that we should opt both for the EU and Kosovo. This is the election year and you seem to have lowest support, some 57%, for membership in the EU?
- The elections will be in a year’s time, but the fact is that this is a extremely disturbing information about the level of support in Serbia for EU membership, which is a sort of red alert for all of us committed to European values. Today in Serbia about all the decisions are based on emotions, and everyone is dissatisfied with the real life. But every citizen should see what the EU standard of living is, that life in the EU is much better than in Serbia even in the times of crisis, even in countries outside the EU. In fact, there is no real explanation of why the support for EU accession has dropped except that we have not managed to establish proper communication with our citizens on promoting EU values.
Has the support for the EU dropped because of the government, because citizens do not want to listen about the importance of EU papers and travel passes, while the inflations is soaring, and we have the lowest average income in the region.
- The fact is that we have a number of problems in the country to solve, but also the fact is that our government has made the largest steps towards Europe and that we, for example, should not forget that we can finally travel freely in the EU with no visas. What we will focus on this year is to improve the living standard and this is something that will bring back the smile on the face of citizens. As a defense minister I want to provide jobs not only for our defense industry, but also for the reconstruction of the whole industry. In the years behind us, we certainly did not fulfill all the promises, but no one could predict that a global economic crisis would hit in 2008. On the other hand, our heritage is still extremely cumbersome and those who do not see that, are not aware of the fact that Serbia was practically ruined in 1990s and that at 2000 we had an empty budget.
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In this context, do you expect any concrete solutions to improve the standard of life?
- I expect that, above all, elections would be marked by concrete solutions to solve the problems that exist in Serbia. As a social democrat and someone who has participated in several campaigns where life was placed first, I think that the standard of living should e in the forefront. I even expect the opposition to come out with certain proposals even from a very comfortable position it finds itself in at the moment. The idea to halve the number of seats in parliament, for example, is not only a stupidity, but also a very dangerous proposal, because it would make it impossible for the minorities to enter the parliament.
Dragan Milivojevic
LEADERS DECIDE ON THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE GOVERNMENT
The issue of cabinet reconstruction has been reopened again this year, and analysts warn us that this is done only when the current Government has something to hide. Is this government trying to survive this year too?
- The government will survive this year because it has support in parliament, and not because anything from the sleeve pulls out a topic for the public to address it. On the other hand, remind and that was announced in January that the leaders of the ruling coalition to discuss a possible reconstruction.
Is it an open question in the Government?
Reconstruction is not a question of the Government, but the coalition of signatories and the parliament. Reconstruction is not an issue for the ministers, but the parties have delegated to them by the Law on the Government voted in the Assembly.
