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Yugoslav army chief draws criticism
By Stevan Zivanovic
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Yugoslavia's controversial
army chief of staff, Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, on Saturday criticized his
Top Stories detractors for interfering in military affairs.
He was appointed by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
and confirmed by his successor Vojislav Kostunica three days ago, amidst
protests from other leaders of the Serbian governing democratic
coalition, or DOS.
During a visit to a motorized brigade in Bujanovac close to the
boundary with Kosovo, Pavkovic said, "I think it is inappropriate for
any
institutions in this state and any political parties to show
interest in what personnel changes are going to be in the army."
Most DOS leaders said Kostunica had made a mistake in retaining
Pavkovic who they said escapes civilian control and has been named by
The Hague war crimes tribunal prosecutors as a suspected accomplice in
alleged crimes against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999.
The general rejected claims that the army is beyond civilian
political control. "We have the president of the state who is also
commander of the
armed forces in peacetime and war and who is a civilian. Through
professional organs, he commands and controls the army."
Under the Yugoslav constitution, the army is commanded and
controlled by a three-man supreme military council made up of the
federal president and the presidents of the two federal republics --
Serbia and Montenegro. The federal president chairs council meetings,
but decisions are taken by
consensus.
Immediately after announcing that the Yugoslav army had won the
11-week war over Kosovo against a NATO-led international force which had
already
entered the province in mid-June 1999, Pavkovic proclaimed
Milosevic mastermind of the victory. Pavkovic went on to campaign
politically in favor of Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia and his
wife Mira Markovic's Yugoslav United Left party, YUL.
Boris Tadic, deputy leader of Serbia's largest parliamentary
Democratic Party and spokesman for Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, was
reported Saturday to have said, "We cannot go into the Partnership for
Peace with old-time people who turned the army into a political party
institution and who made political speeches and were intimate with the
family of the former president."
The federal parliament this week allotted $750 million to the army,
or two-thirds of the federal budget for 2002, but Defense Ministry
officials complained they had no idea how the money will be spent.
Deputy Federal Prime Minister Miroljub Labus, effectively the
government leader, said, "I think the federal government and the Defense
Ministry must control the money spent by the army and Pavkovic is the
obstacle to that.
"We'll accept the decision (by Kostunica to keep him as army
chief), but we'll not abstain from this supervision."
Referring to The Hague tribunal, Pavkovic told the soldiers,
"Members of the army have no reason to fear that institution. We have no
reason to cover up war crimes if there were any or to hide their
perpetrators. ... We'll do all to uncover such possible crimes and those
we knew had taken place during (NATO's) aggression we have already
prosecuted in civilian courts."
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