22.02.2011.

Parliamentary discussion regarding SAF deployment in multinational missions in 2011

The First plenary session continued today in the National Assembly with the proposal on the Decision on Adopting the annual plan for deploying SAF and other defense forces in multinational operations in 2011 as well as on the engagement of SAF members in multinational operations in 2011, a decision adopted by the Government of Serbia.
The proposed decisions envision for the members of the police force and the defense system to continue participating in UN multinational operations in Congo, Liberia , Cote d Ivoire, Lebanon and Cyprus, and for the first time in EU missions in Somalia and Uganda.

In his explanation of the decisions adopted by the Government, minister of defense Dragan Sutanovac stated that at the moment Serbia was participating in five UN peace missions, where they participate in two of them independently, while in other missions SAF take part within other countries’ contingents. He added that the intention was to have a total of 36 members of defense system participating in peace missions in Congo and Lebanon.

"We also plan to send our forces into EU missions, which would be something done for the first time in the history of our country, where we would participate with only a symbolic number of troops. The agreement envisioning the participation of our army and police forces in EU missions is expected to be signed by the end of March, as Sutanovac announced. In his words, Serbia's intention is to increase the number of its troops in these missions and thus make its presence more recognizable as well as to boost the political influence beyond its own borders.

- So far we have deployed a total of 212 members of our forces, 23 of whom are women, with professional soldiers being able to participate on voluntary base-as the minister stressed. He added that the funds necessary for our engagement in these missions for this year alone reach 640 million USD, 107 of which will be donated from the UN. The major part of the sum is allocated for salaries of mission participants, as Sutanovac pointed out.

Responding to MPs' questions regarding the justifiability of our forces taking part in the missions around the world, Minister Sutanovac answered that one of the main reasons is contributing to global peace as well as boosting the interoperability of our forces, which, furthermore, raises the reputation of our army.

In the continuation of the parliamentary discussion, Minister pointed out that at the moment some 5000 members of the defense system have opted to take part in multinational operations. Answering an MP’s question regarding the salaries of participants of peacekeeping missions, Minister stated that they were not as high as he would want them to be, reminding that the starting salary of a peacekeeper is 1050 USD, the highest being 3000 USD, along with the salary they get in the country.
Minister emphasized that our peace keepers are dispatched to peace missions adequately equipped according to all the standards.