Professional Standards

According to the announcement of Major General Ljubisa Velickovic, the President of ``the Headquarters' Commission for investigating the circumstances of the extraordinary events in the army barracks'' in Danilovgrad, the tragedy is a consequence of negligence and disrespect for the procedure and the rules of service.

We'll make an addition to it: neither common sense nor basic caution were demonstrated, and these need not be specially learned. Every unfortunate child in this country knows that mines explode and that one should not play with them, whatever may be written on them. According to the good old sappers' codes, each explosive device is live and lethal, until proven otherwise, just as every piece of arms is by definition loaded and cocked, until the breech mechanism is opened.

That's a matter of discipline and basic responsibility: if there had been any discipline, a tank cannon in Petrovaradin would not have gone off closely missing a kindergarten in Sremski Karlovci; if there had been any discipline many tragedies would not have taken place, including the last one in Danilovgrad. Let's get one thing straight: we are dealing here with a laidback attitude and unwilling routinelike handling of military business, which is extremely dangerous.

With all due regard for frustrations of the Yugoslav Army (defeats, meager salaries, loss of respect, marginalisation, etc.) the erosion of professional standards is absolutely unacceptable. It ought not to have happened that live mines (as many as eight of them) were mixed with practice mines, regardless of their being clearly labeled; it ought not to have happened that the mines were issued to the army, before the officers confirmed that they were really intended for practice.

The presence of hand grenades, fuses, and other pyrotechnics among teenagers on the streets only testifies to the fact that there was no supervision of explosive devices, just as there isn't much of it now. The investigation has shown that the soldiers in Danilovgrad were fortunate, since as many as three live mines were being used during the training that day, but no one activated them.

Criminal charges (as learned before the issue was closed) were raised against 4 officers, 2 lieutenant colonels (commander and head of the brigade's headquarters) were replaced, and disciplinary action was initiated against one major. In the meantime, one officer used the opportunity to distinguish himself professionally on the occasion of the Danilovgrad tragedy by making an inappropriate and pretentious speech. Such behaviour only fosters fears that the Yugoslav Army still don't get it.