Belgrade - Serbian defence leaders 'on the frontline' and
President Boris 'Tadic must decide' are some of the headlines
reporting Thursday on a rift between Defence Minister Dragan
Sutanovac and the Chief of General Staff Zdravko Ponos.
The silent conflict bubbled over in public when Ponos ordered his
generals not to attend Sutanovac's New Year reception and erupted
when Ponos accused the Defence Ministry of incompetence costing
Serbia millions of dollars and possibly even more in insufficient
security.
Sutanovac's people retorted by accusing Ponos of meddling in
politics instead of busying himself with the army.
Despite all that, there was no official reaction to the obvious
rift which military analysts say is undermining the country's
defence.
Instead it is expected that Tadic - who as president and even as
the army commander-in-chief has limited formal power, but
nevertheless has nearly limitless authority - will remove one of the
two feuding men, both of whom are his political allies.
Tadic so far appears undecided and only stated that he 'carefully
monitors all developments.'
'It is possible that public officials may have differing views,
but that must not become a source of instability in any system, least
of all in the defence system,' Tadic said.
Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, who operates from under Tadic's
shadow, however rejected Ponos' claim that 'Serbia has no defence
policy' and told Serbians 'not to worry.'
The Serbian military has been deteriorating since the
disintegration of former Yugoslavia and remains plagued by shortage
of money, corruption and a hopelessly outdated doctrine.
Serbia joined NATO's Partnership for Peace programme two years
ago, but effectively suspended any progress toward NATO membership
over Western support of the breakaway province of Kosovo's secession
in February.
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