"Authorities battled floods, and disinformation"

"Authorities battled floods, and disinformation"

The minister was responding a reporter's question about the accuracy of reports that "the Serb Republic (RS) was deliberately sacrificed in the floods by blowing up a dam."

He noted that "human imagination can achieve anything" and that "the question is how much those who placed that disinformation really love their people and their country."

"Beside battling to save every human life in Serbia we had to fight against a lot of disinformation circulated primarily in various internet media, (about) the number of dead, a dam breaking up..." said Gašić. Rejecting claims that some regions were "sacrificed" for the sake of others, he asked "what kind of person would do harm to one for the sake of somebody else's well-being."

As for the performance of the Serbian Army during the natural disaster, Gašić said that despite the "sell off" of large amounts of resources in 2006 and 2007, the troops responded "readily to all challenges."

"If we had that available as well, perhaps we could and would have been able to otherwise help other units, since the VS has absolutely all the technical equipment that it needed to respond to the tasks that were set before it," he said.

The minister added that "an investigation was ordered about who, when and why sold these assets." Journalists also asked VS Chief of Staff General Ljubiša Diković about what PM Aleksandar Vučić meant when he told him, "Diković, if Šabac falls, you know what to do."

"I understood it precisely in that way - that I know what to do, that is, that Šabac must be defended at all costs, because the consequences would be catastrophic," the army chief said, adding that "what is now often mentioned in public about what would have happened" has been disproven, and advised "turning to what is ahead of Serbia, and that is assistance to those affected by the floods."

"We were given a task, we carried it out, promptly responded, did an excellent job. Let's not now go with why, how, who meant what. We intended to defend people and material goods in that area," said Diković. He added that Serbia "has a good army that should be equipped in accordance with existing opportunities and conditions."

"When it comes to the future of the army I am absolutely optimistic and I am very pleased that our soldiers, in this disaster that has befallen us, performed their tasks flawlessly, as has been evaluated by the defense minister and by the prime minister," Diković said.

Journalists also wanted to know what was discussed during the visit to Moscow last week of Serbia's defense officials and whether one of the topics was a Russian loan. Gašić said that the modernization of the Serbian army was "a very important issue," but that the talks were not focused only on the loan.

"Of course, that loan is very important to the Serbian Army, especially for its modernization, which we must go into at a faster pace than was the case previously. We talked about many things. First of all we thanked them (Russia) for the help they gave us during this natural disaster, but we also talked about joint exercises, such as the tank biathlon, an airborne exercise in September, and military medicine, education and technical cooperation," said Gašić .