Belgrade in Sight

Just prior to the new year, Slovenia's defence ministry showed the public the latest achievement of the Slovenian military. A select company of reporters were flown by helicopter and driven in all terrain vehicles to the heights above Ljubljana where the "most modern radar in Europe - Westinghouse long range AN-TPS70" is located as defence minister Jalko Kacin said.

The reporters were told that the radar can track flights all the way to Belgrade.

The radar is currently being used for civilian traffic as well by Ljubljana's Brnik airport. Defence ministry spokesmen said no other east European country in transition has that kind of equipment. They added that they expect to buy several shorter range radars soon to cover gaps in the radar images.

And that's not the end of budget expenses: all predictions say taxpayers will suffer even more because the military intends to buy a production license for the Austrian Pandur armored vehicle. At the same time, the media reported that the Slovenian army got the first Pandur delivery from the country's steel producers. It costs five million German Marks to make a prototype.

The good side of the vehicle is its speed. Its bad side is the low level armor and the fact that the vehicle is not amphibious. Every produced Pandur will cost, including all equipment, about 1.5 million DEM.

Interestingly the biggest problem isn't the high price. The real problem is the fact that the vehicle is one of Austria's failed projects which it hasn't managed to sell to anyone else.

Despite the obvious fiasco, the Slovenian economy ministry drew up an optimistic analysis predicting that the Slovenian-Austrian vehicle will sell well in Taiwan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Croatia and Singapore and the job was given to Slovenia's steel works industry. The fact that all those countries buy better and cheaper vehicles and that just 60 Pandurs were bought by the Austrian police after a fierce public debate drew no attention.

No seems to have noticed that the vehicle never went into mass production; Slovenia's state institutions paid for the license even before the vehicle was made and tested. So the p[production of some 120 vehicles (for the Slovenian army) is economically unviable in the same way as some of the production of the former Yugoslavia was. However, the difference is that once Slovenians sharply protested the projects to produce Yugoslav super-sonic jet fighters while today the Slovenian public is lenient towards the experiments of its army. And they pay for everything.

 

Report From Tuzla

No Dollars, Clinton to Come

Judging by the phone in shows of the popular Kameleon radio in Tuzla, the local population entered into 1996 full of optimism and with faith in peace. Asked what they expect from the new year 47 of 48 people said: complete peace and BiH in the Dayton borders. The one lone caller said: we should get them!

The partial demobilization of the BiH army opened up a new problem which won't be easy to solve: how do you activate the economy and find jobs for that army of unemployed? Average salaries in state companies stand at 28 DEM and 400 DEM for the few private sector jobs. The stories of a sudden flourish of private initiative, foreign capital are still far away. Just like the fairy tale expectations of the arrival of the Americans and their stacks of dollars. Not one marine has come to town to spend money.

Certainly, NATO troops won't come to town in the first four months of their deployment. All their activities are linked to the Orao air base. They arrived from Hungary and will continue bringing in materials and men to build settlements to house all the facilities they need. All that is cooling the people who dreamed the American dream of riches overnight.

After informal talks with the troops at Orao, you gain the impression that there is great dose of fear of any contact with the local population, whether in uniform or not. Obviously, that stems from their training, something like a story they had to learn which portrays Bosnia as bleaker than it is.

 

Authorities Don't Give Up TV

The Serbian government asked the parliamentary culture and information board on January 9 to appoint a new management board at the Serbian state radio and TV (RTS): Vukasin Jokanovic federal SPS parliament deputy and police minister; Nada Perisic Serbian culture minister and SPS official; Antonije Isakovic SPS official; Dragoslav Mladenovic Serbian education minister SPS official; Nebojsa Maljkovic Asi Bank management board chairman JUL activist; Bogosav Bozic farmed; Gorica Gajevic SPS parliament group chief in the Serbian parliament; Bosko Perosevic Vojvodina premier and head of the Vojvodina SPS; Natasa Gacesa SPS parliament deputy; Dragoljub Micunovic Belgrade university professor President of the Democratic Center; Miladin Jovic TV Pristina editor in chief; Dragan Jokic assistant director at TV Novi Sad; Zoran Zivkovic home desk editor at the RTS; Dragan Babic editor in chief channel two and Jovan Ristic assistant director general and JUL activist.

The government explained that the proposed candidates are prominent and capable experts able to take decisions on public information and didn't mention their party affiliation although its obvious that the majority of them are either members of the SPS or members of the non-parliamentary JUL.

Some of the names were changed, some of the posts also but the intention of the ruling party not to share influence over the media with the opposition is clear.

 

Klis Monument Taken Down

Reports that the famous monument Guardian of Freedom in Klis was taken down is just part of the continuing new Croatian tradition: since 1990 over 3,000 monuments to the W.W.II national liberation struggle have been destroyed or taken down across Croatia with the Dalmatians being especially persistent in that task having removed 500 monuments.

The process is usually tidily wrapped into legal form; for example, the Split and Dalmatia commission for monuments determined that the Guardian of Freedom does not "fit into the architecture of the fortress". The stone monument had no ideological markings, it was raised to honor the defenders of Klis through the centuries. The problem seems to have been the small stone plates in the grass below bearing the names of 199 W.W.II fighters from Klis. The plates were transferred to the local cemetery overnight just days before the monument was taken down.

The author of the monument, architect Bogdan Bogdanovic (a resident of Vienna for several years now) was surprised when VREME asked about the monument: "I thought it had been taken down long ago."

Bogdanovic was willing to discuss everything but politics. About the monuments he erected across Yugoslavia he said: "I see all that calmly. Destruction of monuments? Minor compared to the destruction of entire towns, people, my friends, the bridge in Mostar."

Bogdanovic is currently working on a monument which will be erected in the Avenue of Peace on the Danube island in Vienna. He told VREME that this monument is inspired by the Gamzigrad labyrinth and wondered: "What will the monuments to this war look like?"