Army Junkyard

The pre-war JNA inventory looked impressive, even if its operational functionality was taken with a pinch of salt. One half of the nearly 1,850 tanks could have qualified as modern (300 M-84s) or not too obsolete (850 T-55As and T-54s), unlike the rest (400 T-34, of which a certain number was used in domestic theaters of war, 300 M-4s, etc.) supported by over 1000 armored personnel carriers. The Air Force has not - except on two occasions, first time four months ago when it opened friendly fire on an infantry convoy and three weeks ago, during the unsuccessful bombing of the bridge near Bosanski Brod - used its two squadrons of MiG-29s (18 aircrafts). Instead, it deployed the obsolete supersonic MiG-21 (122 aircrafts, one of which was responsible for shooting down the EC Mission helicopter last January) and MiG-21N (18), as well as the somewhat more advanced Super Galeb G-4 (60), Galeb (25), Orao-1 (25) and Orao-2 (55). Helicopters (70 obsolete Mi-8s and 120 license-built Gazelles) proved themselves mainly in the transport of wounded, and once in the single successful helicopter landing in Capljina, just as the cargo planes did a few days ago during the pull-out of troops from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The pre-war Navy kept in its "stables" 5 classical and 6 midget submarines, around 30 obsolete torpedo and missile boats, 30 patrol boats, 14 mine-sweepers, 35 assault boats and 6 relatively modern missile gunboats, i.e. 4 frigates.

Under public pressure, the Army admitted a loss of around 2,000 men (killed in action) and at least three times more wounded soldiers and officers. The chaos caused by desertion did not lead to a complete breakdown of the army as the one observed in 1941. However, it is impossible to assess the exact number of people the so-called Yugoslav Army has been reduced to. The former JNA had 185,000 regulars (80,000 officers, 90,000-105,000 conscripts), and around half a million first line reservists, i.e. 1,5 million subject to the Territorial Defense. If in the "personnel resource" of the newest Yugoslavia's army we count the "reliable" population, it would be hard to form an armed force of 60,000 people (5 divisions), which is incomparably less than the "seven million soldiers" President Tito "promised" Walter Cronkite some fifteen years ago (when we still loved America).

Its "equipment" has in the latest Balkan wars been proportionally reduced. Around 100 self-propelled guns were left in Slovenia last July, and 65 functional tanks (mostly T-55A) in the Varazdin region. The Army also admitted that 170 tanks and 142 armored personnel carriers were seized; it is not known how many more were destroyed, but a figure of around 100 is the lowest estimate. There is no information concerning the number of heavy artillery weapons (before the war there were around 2,000 large caliber guns and an amazing quantity of ammunition); the arrogance with which all the different armies and paramilitary formations have been firing shells shows clearly that too much ended up in the hands of real murderers. Two fighter planes (MiG-21) "remained" in Croatia, another four were hijacked by defected pilots; around 40 different jets (mostly "Jastreb" and "Orao") crashed or were shot down, along with around 30 helicopters.

Many "trifles" are missing on the inventory lists of the former JNA, 15,000 rifles, 600 artillery weapons of all kinds, 2,000 anti-tank missiles, 13,000 mines, 550 multiple missile launchers, 500 machine-guns, 30,000 hand grenades, around 10 million bullets and as yet unidentified (or simply not published) quantities of explosives. It is impossible to estimate the losses caused by the mining, neutralizing, damaging and/or looting of its own property (airports in Bihac and Tuzla, communication facilities, explosives in "inactivated" missiles, bombs and mines...)

The loss is inestimable. What is frightening are not that the Military Prosecutor's Office has brought criminal charges of theft or "surrender" against some 700 people - 50 NCOs, 500 soldiers and tens of civilians in army service, or the sad loss of a whole industry (at least 150,000 lost their jobs in B&H only ), or even that the state has been "reduced", with all likelihood that the army will not be similarly reduced. What is terrifying is a "pre-war" fact: for half a century, i.e. in the half century the former Yugoslavia lived in peace, not a single rifle left over from WWII was confiscated from the population. How many centuries will have to pass after these wars before the people are disarmed?