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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Army, gendarmerie ready for immediate action in case of attempts to destabilise southern Serbia

Belgrade, 16 November 2007

Serbian Minister of Defence Dragan Sutanovac stated today that the Serbian army and gendarmerie are ready to react immediately at any attempts to destabilise the southern part of central Serbia.

Author: Fonet

Sutanovac told a press conference that the Serbian army and Kfor members in Kosovo-Metohija cooperate well and added that in the past period they undertook around 800 joint patrols along the administrative border line.

He noted that the degree of fighting efficiency of the Serbian army in the southern part of central Serbia is now at a higher level than usual.

He stated that he talked on the phone with officials of the NATO and Kfor who assured him that international forces in Kosovo-Metohija are capable of dealing with every attempt to destabilise the area.

I insisted that the Kfor, which numbers 16,000 soldiers, should prevent any attempts at destabilisation of the province, said the Minister and recalled that the UNMIK police, with five to six thousand people, also takes care of the safety in the province.

Sutanovac added that there is a high degree of trust between the Serbian army and Kfor.

The renovation of the Serbian army’s two MIG 29s will soon be completed in Russia and the planes will be returned to Serbia by the end of the year.

He announced he expects that two more MIG 29s be renovated in Russia by next spring and added that Serbian army helicopters were sent for renovation to the air base in Batajnica which should be over in spring.

He added that these helicopters will also be used for civilian purposes.

The Minister said that additional amounts of fuel have been provided for training and practice of Serbian army pilots and their runs have increased from five to six hours, which makes it an average of 17.05 hours.

According to Sutanovac, the NATO standard in most states is 200 hours a year, which should be achieved in Serbia as well.

Sutanovac announced that early next year an agreement on defence cooperation will be signed with Montenegrin officials with whom Serbian representatives will also discuss the issue of joint army property of the former state union of Serbia and Montenegro.

Serbia and Montenegro both have a list of mutual claims, said Sutanovac and voiced hope that the remaining open issues between these two countries will be settled through talk.

Around 40 planes remained at the Golubovac airport near Podgorica, as well as helicopters which were the property of the former state union.

Sutanovac said at the conference that more than 100 unannounced inspections of military facilities confirmed that there are no Hague indictees hiding there.

A total of 104 military facilities were inspected because we wanted to show that we are not hiding any Hague indictees and as we speak, military facilities in Svilajnac and Smederevo are being searched, specified the Minister.