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| Army base in south officially opened |
| 23 November 2009 | 09:51 -> 14:39
| Source:
B92, Tanjug |
CEPOTINA --
The Serbian Army (VS) Base Jug (South), located near Bujanovac, was officially opened this Monday.
 | The ceremony today (Tanjug)
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The base, known also as Cepotina after a nearby hill, was hailed as the largest and most modern of its kind in the region.
Serbia's top military and state officials attended the ceremony, including President Boris Tadić, Defense Minister Dragan Šutanovac, VS CoGS Lt. Gen. Miloje Miletić, PM Mirko Cveković, and Police Director Milorad Veljović.
"All Serbian citizens who wish for peace and stability in the region and for the best possible inter-ethnic relations, ought to be pleased with the opening of Base Jug. All those who do not wish for peace and who are involved in organized crime… should not be pleased," Tadić said during the ceremony today.
The president stressed that "the army is one of the key factors" for the state as it fights organized crime, and added that the base is located strategically, and offering "key guarantees" for security and peace in the south of Serbia.
The base, Tadić continued, is important for the overall state and army security capacity in many ways, but it also represents a development potential for the south, "since residents of the region will be able to find employment there".
He said that Jug would have an important role in the preparations for peace missions, and that the completion of works on the base – started six years ago – and those on Corridor 10, would provide for the region's equal development.
Serbia, the president, repeated, has two "key strategic goals", one being membership in the EU, and the other preservation of the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity in Kosovo.
"Serbia will never give up on either of these goals," said Tadić.
Defense Minister Dragan Šutanovac also addressed those present at the ceremony to say that the base had been MoD's largest and most important infrastructure project in the past decades.
He also stated that the ministry will strive to bring other military installations in Serbia to the same standard, and that the base's modern medical unit will be at the disposal of the local community.
The base is located some five kilometers south of Bujanovac in southern Serbia, near the Ground Safety Zone (GSZ), and the administrative line with Kosovo and Metohija.
Its location is some 90 kilometers from Bulgarian border and 30 kilometers from Macedonia.
The base covers 35 hectares of land, with more than 30 facilities built so far, able to accommodate almost 1,000 people.
According to the announcements from the Serbian Defense Ministry, the base could be expanded to another 65 hectares, in order to become a training center for peace operations.
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Faculty of Security professor Zoran Dragišić told B92 that the base has a strategic importance for Serbia, considering its location.
"The base has excellent location. It is in a place of greatest Serbian security problems and where greatest security challenges for Serbia can be expected. This is one of the key concrete steps related to the reform of the defense system," this expert believes.
According to him, the military installation's true significance "will depend on political circumstances".
"Considering the policy that is being conducted in Serbia I think that this base can be an important factor for the security of the whole region," said Dragišić.
The southern Serbian region, sometimes referred to as "the Preševo valley", is home to the country's largest ethnic Albanian minority outside of Kosovo, and was on the brink of war after the 1999 conflict in the province.
Local Albanian leaders do not approve of the new base.
Bujanovac municipal chief Saip Kamberi sees Base Jug as "a militarization of the region".
"From the beginning we stood against the idea to have special police and military forces in the region, therefore I do not think this base will contribute to its stability, there was no reason to militarize this region by opening a base, and create an illusion of the state of emergency," said he.
Preševo municipal president Ragmi Mustafa was even more critical, and said that ethnic Albanians will now be "surrounded on all sides by people in uniforms".
"Albanians from the Preševo valley will be occupied in their own homes. We believe that days of armed conflicts are behinds us and therefore there is no need for a military base in the Preševo valley," he was quoted as saying.
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