One Call Changes Everything

"If someone rings your doorbell at two o'clock at night, don't open the door". A Belgrade citizen got this advice from a friend a few days ago. The friend is an officer of the Yugoslav army. On May 5, the daily Nasa Borba quoted unidentified sources as saying that those who did their military service in Kosovo in the eighties would be recruited later this month. Nenad Canak, the president of Vojvodina's social democrats league, spoke about recruitment two months ago, when the clashes in Drenica broke out. Canak recently said that he would hide a few of his workers who had gotten mail asking them to report to the army, should they decide not to respond. Goran Svilanovic, the Civil Alliance of Serbia spokeman and a tank crew member, was also called for a two-day drill set for May 8. A reporter from the town of Leskovac, Bojan Toncic, was taken to a drill by about ten people a few weeks ago. "As if they were out to arrest Radovan Karadzic", he said afterwards. On Wednesday, May 6, the Yugoslav army general staff denied claims by the daily Nasa Borba.

"The Yugoslav army repeats that regular drills and other activities are deliberately and maliciously being characterized as a draft", the general staff said.
All right, officially there is no draft, for it would really be strange to call forty-year olds, who could hardly find the cantina in the barracks they served, to fight terrorists trained in Albania and armed to the teeth. With this regime, however, one should ever say never, as Adem Demaci said to Vuk Draskovic the other day. There is something strange about it.

A bit too many people have been called for drills in the last week or so. Most of them are part of the reserve police force. Some of them asked about the nature of the drill and were promised that they would only have to replace the police. Some of the recruits who did report to the army say they were immediately transferred to the police force. Those who didn't were visited by military police in a few villages near Belgrade. We spoke to some of the "chosen ones", Serbs and Montenegrins born in Kosovo.

VREME spoke to the Center for Anti-War Action, the Humanitarian Rights Fund, the Civil Alliance of Serbia and Vojvodina's Social Democrats League, but none of them said "yes" to the question "Have too many people been called for military drills these days"? The Center for Anti-War Action said two young men who tried to leave the country prior to their regular draft and military service were arrested on the border and taken into custody. There are no official records suggesting a draft is going on, but anyone you talk to will tell somebody's sad story, or perhaps his own. Either too many people are being called for drills or all the conscripts are terrified with the possibility of ending up on "sacred Serbian land" at this inconvenient moment. Many of them have had a bad experience with the late Yugoslav National Army (JNA). Once you are inside the barracks, you never know when and if you will get out", Said Goran Svilanovic.

Is there any room for fear? The army says that it is engaged in activities on the country's borders, but not deeply into its territory. "Sure, the conflict in Kosovo has not yet turned into a war, but it is a very serious conflict", said Goran Svilanovic. People are getting killed in this conflict every day, and hardly anyone in Kosovo is going to throw flowers at you if you're wearing a uniform. Apart from all that, the Yugoslav army general staff is very unspecific about terms such as "protecting borders" and "in-depth territory", and no one is very happy with his life hanging on terminology. Yugoslav army units seen in Kosovo will probably find little consolation in the fact that their presence in the southern Serbian province is qualified as a "set of drills" or "mobile camping". It looks too reminiscent of a game played here a few years ago, in which many people lost their nerves, their health, their arms, legs and their lives.

The mood is very much the same as "last time". Although many people will tell you that "Kosovo should be defended at all costs", none of them are too happy when they get chosen to go defend it. Most of them don't know whether to report to the army or not. They don't want a confrontation with the law, but even less do they want to get killed. Most of those who do respond are from the countryside, as they can neither get lost in the city crowd nor take the embarrassment of not going to the army. "Milosevic is destroying all institutions, including the army. People do not trust anyone anymore", said Svilanovic, adding he would report to the army full of hope that he won't end up fighting in Kosovo or anywhere else.

Things are a bit different in Montenegro. "I will prevent the involvement of Montenegrin recruits in political conflicts in Yugoslavia", Milo Djukanovic said on May 5 in Podgorica. However, there is no one to defend Serbia's citizens from themselves. They put their lives in the hands of the regime at a referendum not so long ago. Some of those advocating a fight with the rest of the world are probably prepared to sacrifice themselves and their children for their beliefs. There were such characters in the wars which recently ended in the former Yugoslavia. There are those who will be late in realizing that "one call changes everything". A third party with much the same feelings will be far from here when it happens.