04.06.2014.
Minister Gasic at the meeting of the Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs
Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic have briefed today the Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs of the Serbian National Assembly about the Plan of Activities of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces by the end of the year and answered the questions of the members of that body.Announcing the practice to attend meetings of the Board whenever there is a need, Minister Gasic pointed out that from now on he is ready to openly discuss all the issues in order to jointly find the best solutions.
He explained in detail all the main activities that are ahead in 2014 with special reference to current events and intensified engagement of the Serbian Armed Forces in assisting the citizens in flood relief.
- During the recent unfortunate events the Serbian Armed Forces has proven to be a well-organized system that meets the expectations of its citizens as evidenced by the high confidence of the people, Minister Gasic pointed out.
Responding to questions of Dragan Sutanovac, a member of the Committee for Defence and Internal Affairs, about the employed personnel and material resources of the Serbian Armed Forces during the action of rescue from flood, Defence Minister said that in the period from 14th to 25th May, there were10,949 members with 4,184 servicemen in the field, who constituted the logistics of the rescue operation.
- On 17th May, there were 1984 men in the field, without logistics, and we still have a thousand men in Obrenovac, with possibility to replace
them with the same number at any time – the Minister said, explaining that during the rescue, there were ten helicopters, nine large engineering machines, 123 vehicles, three amphibian vehicles and a number of other materiel continuously employed.During his speech before the members of the Committee, Ministers Gasic said that members of the Serbian Armed Forces evacuated 10,299 people, mostly by Army and Air Force whose aircraft flew 551 times, with 195 hours of flying, and that the citizens were delivered 428,000 kilograms of food and water.
- We are still engaged in the field in Obrenovac, because the army does not recognise "I cannot" and "I will not”, and in 48 hours we will stabilize the situation in that city where currently there are over two hundred trucks and our members who help people – Minister of Defence said.
On the question of the member of the Committee for Defence and Internal Affairs of the Serbian National Assembly regarding procurement of batteries for the needs of aircraft of the Serbian Armed Forces, Minister Gasic announced soon completion of the procedure which, because of the Law on Public Procurement, was slightly slowed down, after which the MiG 29 aircraft will be fully prepared for the execution of tasks. He pointed out that the information that the procurement is worth ten thousand euros is not correct, but there are two variants, one of which is 89,000 and the other 84,600 euros.
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