Vucevic: Time to decide about compulsory military service, debate ahead

BELGRADE - Serbian Defence Minister Milos Vucevic said on Monday an initiative to reinstate compulsory military service did not mean Serbia was readying itself for any kind of war, but preparing to protect peace and freedom, and added that a strong army would act as another deterrent to those with malintent towards Serbia.

Asked by Pink TV when compulsory military service would begin and how long it would last, Vucevic said nothing would be done overnight and that a debate on the matter was still ahead.

"We have officially launched the initiative. The final decision is up to the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia," Vucevic said.

"The assessment of the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff and the Ministry of Defence is that this is the time society and decision-makers must give their opinions on this. Thirteen years have passed since the suspension of compulsory military service. It was not abolished but temporarily suspended on January 1‚ 2011 and, since then, we have had 13 generations of people who are not even in the reserve," he said.

Voluntary military service is not even close to compensating for that, Vucevic said.

The Defence Ministry and the army must be given enough time to prepare the infrastructure for receiving recruits, he said, noting that the infrastructure would be adapted to modern life and that living conditions in the army would not be the same as they had been 30 or 40 years ago.