Fatal Negligence

Profound sorrow at a death of soldiers, fear and anxietyall of these could be read on the faces of citizens of Danilovgrad, especially on the faces of the parents and relatives of unfortunate soldiers at the funeral of Darko Rasovic (20) from Ljajkovici near Podgorica, Zoran Jovovic (19) from Pluzine, Slobodan Bojic (18) from Obrenovac and Aleksandar Batori (20) from Novi Sad.

The words of consolation uttered by Colonel Slavko Big, the Commander of the Antiaircraft Defense Corps, Milorad Katic, the President of the municipality of Danilovgrad did not make any difference, nor did condolences offered by Momir Bulatovic, the President of Montenegro, Zoran Lilic, the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Radoje Kontic, the Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Pavle Bulatovic, the Federal Defense Minister, and, particularly, General Colonel Momcilo Perisic, the ChiefofStaff of the Yugoslav Army Headquarters, who coldly said on television that ``the tragedy had taken place during the training.'' Colonel Big made a farewell speech. He said, ``We grieve, dear parents, that the lives of your children and our soldiers were extinguished yesterday.

We wonder, and most of all you do, whether this was necessary. I assure you, that those who are responsible for this tragic event will and must be brought to justice, even if it's no solace to you. We must learn from this and realize that no one has the right to risk the lives, treating them this way...'' But, the Colonel's words only revolted the bereaved families and gathered citizens. Only a week ago, the soldiers, who are now dead, took an oath on the very same spot. The officers addressed the parents on the occasion and told them, ``They are in good hands from now on. We will take care of them.'' Besides protests, angry cries of the parents, crushed by pain, could also be heard, ``You haven't kept your word. You betrayed us.''

The gathered citizens reacted in a similar way. The ``Milovan Saranovic'' army barracks are located in the center of the town, which was shaken by a deafening explosion at about 12.30 a.m. on that fateful day. Dark foreboding came true and the citizens rushed to the local Medical Center to offer help. They feared over the final toll of the tragedy, because of a large quantity of arms and ammunition stored in the barracks especially after the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) withdrew from the former Yugoslav republics. It was common knowledge that the army barracks were filled to capacity, that a number of soldiers slept in tents, and that problems were numerous.

Military authorities did not make a statement the whole day, which was taken here as an intention to hush up the tragedy. Therefore, the possible death toll was pure guesswork. It was announced the next day that 4 soldiers had been killed and two seriously injured. However, eyewitnesses claimed that a dozen soldiers sustained injuries. This was interpreted as an intention to diminish the true proportions of the tragedy, which only stirred up animosity towards the officers' corps in the garrison.

``All of them should be disarmed and sent home,'' said a middleaged citizen on a crowded bus. ``Should the kids be entrusted in their care,'' he wondered, listing the recent deaths of soldiers throughout the army barracks of the federal state's new army and accused the military leadership of incompetence, and the politicians of pushing the youths into senseless death throughout the territory of former Yugoslavia.

He also mentioned mysterious deaths of Montenegrin youths on the battlefronts, for which he also blamed the army command. Another citizen mentioned a dysentery epidemic, for which he held the officers in the town's army barracks responsible. Sewage from the army barracks leaked into the town's drinking water spring, since the drainage was not done properly.

No one believes the official figures pertaining to the number of those infected. The rumor has it that some 34,000 people suffer from dysentery, whose damaging effects are permanent. ``I've never seen such negligence, in addition to a lack of competence and responsibility,'' a corpulent youth, who had been proud of being made a professional soldier under contract, tried to convince his interlocutors but soon changed his mind. ``We'll either get killed or drowned by this flood of promotions of new generals we are a witness to every day.

This is a culmination of farce and helplessness among the military leadership who are unable to overcome the crisis,'' a Montenegrin official, who had asked to remain anonymous told VREME. There is a host of reasons to be dissatisfied with a number of decisions the military leaders have made. One of them is also a decision to set up the line of defense close to the populated areas, which gave rise to protests among the citizens. He also claimed that some problems which the local authorities had pointed out still remain unsolved and represent a serious threat to people's safety because dangerous explosive devices are not handled with care. There's a lot of dangerous ``war material'' in Danilovgrad.

That is why people are glad to see it being transported to unknown destinations, as it was the case twenty days ago when a dozenodd loaded trucks left the town. The question as to who is in charge of storing all this in Danilovgrad, Podgorica, and even some coastal resorts, remains unanswered, just as the question of what measures will be undertaken to prevent a similar tragedy. In any case, an attitude towards the military is changing in Montenegro, primarily because of their presumptuous behaviour.

Antiarmy sentiment is growing also because of the alleged connections between the army and various paramilitary organizations, the centers for special training, the existence of ``red berets...'' Pavle Bulatovic, who was a guest on a callin program produced by Montenegrin Television, was asked by Dragan K. Markovic from Budva about the presence of paramilitary formations in Montenegro.

The Minister denied it. The next day the Podgorica daily ``Pobjeda'' published his answer in boldtype, and Markovic asked the media and the Minister a new question, ``It is clear that you have paramilitary units in every town in Montenegro. They undergo training every day, and are to be used when a referendum on the state and legal status of Montenegro is called upon the request of Montegrin parties.'' Dragan Markovic supported his claim with the following arguments, ``The Yugoslav Army's counterintelligence service has its secret premises (or at least it thinks they are secret) on the second floor of the ``Zetafilm'' building in Budva. From there, it organizes two companysize units. Parasoldiers are of Serb nationality.

They are allowed to take home the arms assigned to them. I know their commanders personally and I won't mention their names because of their families.'' ``Someone will have to be put behind bars after this substantiated accusation. It'll be either you or me,'' Dragan Markovic concluded. It is not known whether Minister Bulatovic has done anything in this regard, but the citizens seem to be increasingly preoccupied by the striking appearance of a large number of young people in fatigues, whose pieces do not match, some of whom wear ``red berets'' and carry along unusual luggage, so that no one can tell to which branch of the military they belong. They crowd the bus and railway stations, and people mostly take them for weekendfighters or members of some special units, since it was noticed that they do not salute the officers.

Many of them are aggressive and like to drink, they often get into fights with local youths, sing Chetnick songs... Acim Visnjic, the member of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) in the Montenegrin Parliament, asked the Parliament, ``What will the Montenegrin authorities do in order to protect the members of the Yugoslav Army from being attacked by civilians?'' Visnjic's claimed that some soldiers had been beaten up in cafes in the coastal town of Bar, immediately after taking their oath.

Media did not report on this, the local police remained silent, and our sources in Bar confirmed Visnjic's allegations. No one can claim with certainty that these events should be put in a political context, but one can hear in Montenegro that some officers have warned their soldiers to stay away from ``liberal'' hangouts, or they'll get beaten up since the liberals do not like the Yugoslav Army.

The national makeup of the commanding officers' corps has come under close scrutiny in Montenegro, especially if it's claimed that there are no Montenegrins on the commanding positions. No one can be certain whether antiMontenegrin feelings are being encouraged on one hand and antimilitary ones on the other. But, the people are not really preoccupied with these questions. They wonder how come the tragedy such as the one in Danilovgrad happened? The promise that those responsible will soon be found has not been fulfilled so far. The authorized military services have not issued any announcements.

No one has given an explanation as to how could a live antitank mine have possibly been placed next to practice mines, when the difference between them is obvious to the naked eye, and especially when they're lifted since the live mine weighs 8 kg more at least (the weight of the explosive charge). In any case, there were about one hundred soldiers on the training range.

A blessing in disguise was that some of them were 50 meters away from the spot of the explosion. About 50 soldiers were far enough, cleaning and washing the spades they used to bury the mines. It is still unclear why one of the soldiers jumped on the mine and thus activated it, keeping in mind that its fuse reacts to the pressure in the range between 200 and 220 kg?

Is that a part of the training? Where was their senior officer? The papers said that Commander Milan Naumov had attempted a suicide, but was prevented. However, those ``wellinformed'' tried to find a key to the tragedy in the fact that the mines were brought from the warehouses on the Croatian territory, which is where the cause of the tragedy should be sought, as well as a person from the officers' corps who planted the mine. On the other hand, reliable sources say that several officers from the army barracks in Danilovgrad have already been arrested. Nevertheless, this is no consolation to the parents of dead soldiers. It is certain that after a series of catastrophic errors the Yugoslav Army will be hit hard by a wave of discontent and anger of parents who will have plenty of justifications for any move they could possibly take.