Killed Soldiers in Kosovo

PRIVILEGES OF THE SERBIAN "OBILICS"

AIM BELGRADE, June 10, 1998

Something over a month ago fell the first victim of the Kosovo conflicts among the young soldiers of the Yugoslav Army (JA). It was Djula Dorin, a border-guard who was doing his army service on the slopes of Mt.Bogicevica where he came from garrison Plav in Montenegro. This was the first sign that the Army of Yugoslavia was seriously involved in the Kosovo conflicts. According to the official statement, the young man succumbed to "the wounds he had sustained during a criminal attack of the Shqipetar terrorists on a border patrol of the Yugoslav Army". Judging by reactions, it seems that Dorin's death did not affect domestic public opinion apart from the local population, especially the Voivodina Hungarians whose member was the late Djula.

Actually, the death of the solider, Djula Dorin served as a kind of catalyst in the already initiated discussion on the pages of "Magyar So" between representatives of political parties of Voivodina Hungarians about "ways to protect Hungarian young men doing military service in Kosovo" as Andras Agoston, leader of the Democratic Alliance of the Voivodina Hungarians defined his polemic thesis. In view of the prevailing stand in the Hungarian political circles in Voivodina that "the conflict between the Serbs and the Albanians should be settled by themselves without dragging others into it" in mid May an action for "the pulling-out of Hungarian soldiers from Kosovo" was initiated, but stopped halfway through mostly because the Federal Defence Ministry turned a deaf ear to the demands of the political leaders and soldiers' parents to let their delegation go to Kosovo and see for itself "on the spot" how true were the official statements and claims of the competent military institutions that the soldiers were safe and that "army had nothing to do with the fights against Shqipetar terrorists"!

Josef Kasa, Lord Mayor of Subotica and one of the leaders of Voivodina Hungarians, went even further recently when he called Slobodan Milosevic a liar because he did not fulfill the promise given to him that Hungarian soldiers from Voivodina would not be sent to Kosovo.

But, not only a similar statement of the Defence Minister, Pavle Bulatovic was equally unreliable, but it turned out that the Yugoslav Army was indeed fully involved in the armed conflicts in Kosovo which was attested by names of soldiers who, after Djula Dorin, lost their lives while doing their army service: Vojkan Matic and Dusan Tasic who were killed on May 29, and Vladimir Ratkovic who died on June 8, this year.

Several days before he tragically lost his life Dusan Tasic, from Pozarevac, wrote a letter to his parents revealing all that both the civilian and military authorities are trying to hide from the public. First of all that these children in uniforms are by no means safe: "During these twenty eight days I had only one bath. The barracks are in chaos. Tanks and soldiers are all around the place: military police, infantry, scouts, reserve corps. They are sleeping in our dormitories and we have been moved. The militia is very busy in the surrounding villages. There are days when the shooting goes on for twenty-four hours." In conclusion he wrote to his parents that he was praying to God "for everything to turn out all right and that he would not have to stay in that shit hole for ever". Dusan was only twenty.

Neither the publishing of his letter nor warnings on the pages of independent media could wake up the local public from lethargy. For example, it impassively listened to empty epic phrases of lieutenant-colonel Slobodan Cvetkovic over the grave of the uniformed boy, Dusan Tasic: "The Serbian nation had again and again to bear Obilics and Sindjelics (NB: heroes from the First Serbian Uprising) and now Dusan"!

At the funerals of other soldiers, also Serbs by nationality, eulogies were teeming with Obilics and Sindjelics. But, not at Djula Dorin's funeral, although the valedictory military speech was also filled with pathos. Consequently, it turns out that only Serbian soldiers have that "honour" to aspire to have a privilege of becoming a "Sindjelic" or "Obilic" in their lifetime, while young men of other nationalities, even Montenegrins, doing their army service in the JA are denied that privilege.

True, the Federal Constitution and laws do not make any discrimination regarding rights and duties of citizens of FR Yugoslavia in the defence of the country. But, who gives a damn here for the Constitution and laws! In his interview to the BK Telekom in early May this year, Tomislav Nikolic, Vice-President of the Serbian Government said that "the Shqipetars do not have to serve in our Army if they do not want to". It is common knowledge that not one percent of the Albanian population serves in the VJ, but are en masse recruited by the other side, the so called Kosovo Liberation Army (OVK). Officers almost do not hide their satisfaction with the fact that the "Shqipetar terrorists do not come to their units" so that it could be concluded with unavoidable cynicism that for them fighting and haggling with Shqipetars all over Kosovo is a more acceptable way of life.

Confidence in the Moslem soldiers is no better, especially when it comes to officers and other higher circles, while other ethnic groups are not worth mentioning in that respect. Some relevant political parties and, it seems, a major part of Montenegrin public is taking care of the withdrawal of Montenegrin recruits from Kosovo, same as in the case of soldiers of the Hungarian nationality.

In his statement for the public of June 8, Dr.Novak Kilibarda, leader of the National Party of Montenegro, asked openly: "Who and on the basis of which constitutional authority made a decision on sending Montenegrin recruits to Kosovo"? Reminding Milo Djukanovic, President of Montenegro and a legitimate and equal member of the Supreme Command, that he should demand urgent reconvening of the Supreme Defence Council, Kilibarda advised parents of Montenegrin conscripts to "demand the return of their sons from the Kosovo battlefield". Only a day later the Social-Democratic Party of Montenegro sent a similar appeal.

The political circles in Serbia are on quite a different wavelength. Practically unisonous demand of the political public that "the cradle of Serbdom must be defended by all means" - made it hard to discern a discordant tone of the Human Rights Committee of the Democratic Party - a voice which was sent in a form of a letter to the Supreme Defence Council immediately after Djula Dorin's death demanding from President of the Council Slobodan Milosevic to "withdraw from the first lines of defence" all conscripts doing their military service and to send to the Yugoslav - Albanian border "professional soldiers in accordance with Article 134 of the FRY Constitution"! True, the demand was human, but under the present circumstances sounded, to say the least, naive: firstly, the soldiers are not defending only the "first defence lines of FRY" (the Pristina Corps controls some ten kilometers of borderland and units are deployed all over Kosovo) and secondly, the Army of Yugoslavia does not have enough professional soldiers to fulfill all the requirements.

In contrast to that appeal, Dr.Vojislav Seselj, chief of the Serbian Radicals gave an "objective" assessment of the killing of the conscripts because "when there is shooting someone is bound to be killed". In his interview to "Channel 9" from TV Kragujevac on June 8, in his well-known style Seselj promised: "We shall defend Kosovo to the last breath". It seems that it is not so difficult, especially if Kosovo is defended by the lives of other people's children. A bitter lamentation could be heard at the funeral of Dusan Tasic that the authorities were sending only the poor young men, including refugees from Bosnia and Croatia to die in Kosovo, but that there were no rich people's sons among them.

On June 9, exactly five months after the last session, Slobodan Milosevic convened the Supreme Defence Council with all its members, i.e. Milo Djukanovic included. A rather brief official release from the session showed that the main subject was Kosovo. The statement for the public said that "The Army of Yugoslavia and internal affairs authorities are in full control of our state border and are successfully implementing measures which guarantee the security of FRY". If that is so then perhaps the soldiers would no longer die in Kosovo. However, they probably did not read the letter of the late twenty-year-old Dusan Tasic.

According to the latest decision of the military authorities, military term of soldiers doing their service in the YA has been extended for a month and a half and the arrival of new ones has been postponed.

Stipe Sikavica

(AIM)