The Story of Vuk O.

Vuk Obradovic had already attracted internal (military) attention in the early seventies: in "popular" pamphlets describing life in the army, Cadet V.O. was mentioned as a shining example. In everything, of course. Publicly promoted to junior captain in 1973, labeled as "the hero of our times" and "Captain Vuk". A myth is (was) being spread about him as the officer who, save the war commanders, moved the fastest from rank to rank in JNA, which is, to a certain extent, a much harder task than breaking out of enemy's encirclement in combat. He became "the friend of the public" in 1989, when the General Staff made an unexpectedly good move by making Col. Vuk Obradovic the Federal Defense Ministry's spokesman. However, not even Col. Obradovic was able to cover up the General Staff's incapacity and/or unwillingness to answer the questions made by the public. The press conferences first became less regular, then started to be postponed and, finally, were discontinued.

Vuk Obradovic soon re-emerged as the head of the cabinet of the Federal Defense Minister, Veljko Kadijevic, first announced as "General of continuity" and later seen off as "traitor", by the same people. Obradovic's position hierarchically demanded a person with the rank of General, and he got the stars at the time when, perhaps, he needed them the least - i.e. when his superior had already conceived his resignation which he eventually "made formal" on January 7 (after the downing of the two EC helicopters). In the meantime, Obradovic has not appeared in public. He was noticed again on an "interesting" occasion, at the General Staff gang's audience with Patriarch Pavle, in March 1992. At that time, he was already the head of the Federal Defense Ministry's Morale Directorate.

The said Directorate's former name was "The Directorate for Moral and Political Education". In fact, Vuk Obradovic carved out his whole career as one of its activist, thus getting a pejorative remark from his colleagues that he was a "political" rather than "troop" officer. Mr. Lazar Stojanovic, a movie director, is one of the most famous victims (two years in prison) of the then (1973) barely 33-year-old Captain Vuk, serving at the Pozarevac Garrison (Serbia). Five years later, and a rank higher, Vuk Obradovic was "commissar" of the Postojna Garrison (Slovenia). He was promoted extraordinarily three times since then. He promised the parents of soldiers (who were unlucky enough to end up in B&H) that he would resign if their kids did not come back by May 19, at the latest. All of them did not come back, and General Vuk Obradovic kept his promise: he resigned on May 20, and the so-called Presidency of the ex-Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, with amazing promptness (on the same day) accepted his resignation.

Vuk Obradovic is 45 now. He was born in 1947 in the village of Kondzelj, near Prokuplje (Serbia), as one of nine children. He became a military scholarship holder in 1960. After graduating from the Land Forces' Military Academy, the National Defense School and the War School (average grade - A), he got his doctorate by defending a thesis entitled "The National Question in Yugoslavia, with Special Emphasis on Nationalism within the Armed Forces". His book "Society, Nationalism, Defense" and some fifty previously published works also deal with the problem of inter-ethnic relations.

The public regards him as the initiator of the "Generals' purge" in the (former) JNA. Two well-timed public appearances strongly substantiate this belief: on February 25, 1992, he was presented as "the man who advocates swift reforming of the army, but also as one of the most persistent and most consistent ones in the struggle for the protection of Serbs in Krajinas"; a month later (May 26, interview to POLITIKA daily) he announced the retirement of a great many officers and non-commissioned officers, that is, the creation of a modern, ideology-free and rational army, corresponding to the needs of the new state (i.e. the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). On the same occasion he said that the new Serbian and Montenegrin army will be comprised of professionals, that military service will be limited to six or eight months and that the new state's political institutions will have the decisive influence on the army's shape. He managed to get past the already too hot Bosnian-Herzegovinian problem with the following view: "the best solution for the confederate model of B&H is that every constituency should have its own military formation, which should be re-directed and coordinated by a joint body at the republican level."

Naturally, this story lacks the explanation of aims, purpose and scope of General Obradovic's resignation. If we ignore, for the time being, the unconfirmed (but no less reliable) hypotheses on the "chaotic wheeling and dealing" within the Federal Defense Ministry, the General Staff and in what until recently was the JNA; if we forget Mr. Obradovic's large family, its connections, influence and role in Yugoslavia's disintegration (Pavic Obradovic, Deputy-Chairman of the Serbian Parliament; Andrija Obradovic, allegedly an important General from the field of telecommunications; Zoran Obradovic, the General Manager of Yugoslavia Commerce trading company, etc.), and even the suppositions on the General's health, there is still one question to be answered. And it is arises from the following fact: one does not sacrifice 45 years of a "brilliant" career (and life) for no reason.