16.11.2011.

The day of the army marked

With a ceremonial parade of the army units at the Nis barracks Knjaz Mihailo the 16th November - Day of the Army was marked today.

The central celebration was attended by Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac Chief of the Serbian General Staff Gen. Miloje Miletic and his associates, as well as the Serbian Army commanders, heads of administrative districts, local governments, religious communities, veterans' associations, Nis pupils and many citizens.

Congratulating the holiday to members of the Army, Minister Sutanovac said that they are striking fist of our operational capabilities.

- What we have done in recent years was to reform the army which should enable our Army to be standardized according to the best international standards, while respecting our traditions and our reliance on history - Sutanovac said, adding that the land forces, as the most numerous branch, and certainly the most important, significantly influences the content and dynamics of the reform process and the burden of reform, and much of the credit for the success of this process belongs to just Army.

According to Minister Sutanovac, members of this aspect of their involvement in missions and tasks defined by law and now in the Ground Safety Zone and peacekeeping missions and other places where it is necessary the presence of the Army realize and fulfill these tasks.

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Last year, wherever the people of Serbia had difficulties, members of the Army were there to help them. In Kraljevo where they earthquake and fires struck, to the south of the country where there were floods and all those places where we helped, even supplying water- said Sutanovac.

- We have reformed military education and established the University of Defence, and the most promising professional soldiers who are now among you will have the opportunity to be trained in our training centers and to gain the title of an NCO. In addition, we reformed military health care and thus allowed to the civil part of our population to get the treatment at military hospitals across the country - the minister stressed, adding that in the past two years, invested more than two decades cumulatively in terms of technique and arms.

Speaking about the reputation of our Armed Forces at the international level, the Minister emphasized participation in peacekeeping operations. The reform was has restored people’s trust in the Serbian Army as the leader among state institutions, which enjoys most trust along with the Serbian Orthodox Church

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The most important result of our reforms is that today there are professional members of the Serbian Army in your ranks. Professionalism is the goal of everyone in the Serbian Army, the only question is when they want to join the ranks of SAF. We managed to finish the professionalization by January this year, which has ranked us among those armies that have a fully professional force, and on the other hand, while respecting the traditions we have offered young men and women to volunteer to serve their country during a three-month training - said the Minister, pointing out that the indicator of success and professionalism is the fact that this year 15,000 young men and women were interested in 4500 vacancies in the military academy.

The Minister said that despite a reduced budget, the Serbian Army was the largest employer in Serbia and that "our soldiers are no longer just soldiers but the soldiers who care about their country, the Army and their families."

- The years ahead are years of development, but those behind us show that if we invest the energy, faith, vision and ideas, all reforms can be realized despite lack of money. I hope that the promises we made regarding compensation for those in troops, will take effect in the months to come- said Sutanovac.

In Nis, on St Vitus Day, we signed an agreement with the Orthodox Church, the minister recalled, and soon our forces will get new chaplains.

Army Commander Lt. Gen. Ljubisa Dikovic said, congratulating the holiday that members of this branch proudly recall the year 1914 when the Serbian army was facing defeat at the Kolubara. And then, with the help of an amazing mind, and the strange power of the offensive in little over a month we forced the mighty Austro-Hungarian forces from Serbia.

- The Army today is a modern form of organized and trained army and a key factor of operation capabilities- General Dikovic said, adding that all tasks will be performed, from the GSZ where, as he pointed it will remain a factor of stability through dozens of exercises performed in the country and abroad, and will help relieve the consequences of natural disasters.

-Here before you stands a good army, you showed us the way and we will continue to follow it- said the general Dikovic to Minister of Defence and Chief of General Staff, ending address with an exclamation "Long live the Army".

Serbian President Boris Tadic for outstanding merit and performance in carrying out its duties in the field of security has awarded to fifty members of the MoD and SAF gold and silver medals for their committed service.

Minister presented the medals to Major General Milan Bjelica, Lieutenant-General Ljubisa Dikovic, Major General Vidoje Zivkovic, Colonel Radmilo Vidojkovic, Warrant Officer Aleksandar Nikolic, and military employee Milorad Popovic and others.

On the occasion of the holiday, the Army Commander Lt. Gen. Ljubisa Dikovic declared 72nd Special Brigade as the best unit, 5 Military Police Battalion and the First Battalion 15th Brigade, while the awards for best military base went to "Jug" and barracks "Rastko Nemanji?" in Pancevo and barracks "Backa" in Sremska Mitrovica.

ANSWERS TO REPORTERS’ QUESTIONS

Answering questions from journalists, Minister Sutanovac once again congratulated the members of the Army for everything they have done in the process of reform and transformation of the Army of Serbia and in the field of civil-military cooperation.

"This is the first year of fully professional and this is extremely important that the reforms be implemented the right way. I must say that this process is implemented in the best possible way and we can proudly say that the Army has executed all tasks with the highest mark. She is the backbone of our peacekeeping mission, civil-military cooperation, assistance to the civilian population and the most difficult tasks in the security zone and therefore the greatest possible attention is always paid to the land forces. On the other hand, the MoD and SAF really care about balanced regional development. It is not by chance that the army is in Nis, but because we want to improve the standard of living of citizens of Nis. Around 1.7 billion RSD year go to Nis from the budget of MoD to pay for the salaries and pensions of SAF, but also in cities like Kursumlija, Prokuplje, Leskovac, Vranje, Zajecar, therefore it is the Army which leads the economic growth of much of our country, " as Minister of Defence said.

Asked about the security situation in the Ground Safety Zone, Sutanovac said: "The security situation in the GSZ has not changed. We have been saying for now that this is a turbulent area, but we manage to perform all our tasks with MUP perform its tasks and missions. That part of the GSZ under our control is safe, yet we tend to draw the attention of international community to the fact that it is necessary to increase the presence and involvement of KFOR to prevent destabilization. Despite all the tension, I think that, without cooperation with KFOR and the international community, we would have a much worse situation therefore it is crucial that this situation is stabilized as soon as possible."

Commenting on the efforts of certain parties to reinstitute the obligation of military service, Sutanovac said:

"It is obvious that a professional army is far better that the conscript duty, except that we allow, in accordance with tradition, to have a voluntary military service. If we look at contemporary and modern world, we see that all countries have turned towards this transformation. The latest to have done so is Germany and Austria is still considering it, and in talks with Greece and Turkey, and the Russian military we were told that want to one day have a fully professional army. Returning to the military duty would be a step backwards, not good either for the army or the security of citizens, and I think that those parties which advocate such a solution do so, simply because they do can not get the support of Serbian citizens, nor is it good for security system ".

Sutanovac also underlined that it is completely unacceptable to the military hospital in civilian move and become the Ministry of Health Clinical Center. "The army has special needs - said the minister - in terms of treatment and health care. On the other hand, I should point out that our military hospitals open to the civilian population. In the past three years we MMA alone has admitted 80 thousands of civilians and operated on 37 000 civilians, so anyone who thinks that the MMA’s turning into a civilian institution would be a good thing is wrong."

The Army is the largest and oldest branch of the Army of Serbia and its main tasks are deterring armed threats and the defense of the territory as well as providing conditions for the mobilization and development of the armed forces and other bodies defense system.

Participation in peacekeeping operations and international military cooperation and support to civil authorities in countering non-military challenges, risks and threats, also belong to the core tasks of the Army.

Command of the Army in Nis and the units are deployed in several cities in Serbia. The army comprises four brigades and the River flotilla, Special Brigade, Mixed Artillery Brigade, 3 and 5th Military Police Battalion, 21 ties and 246th Battalion Atomic Biological Chemical Defence.