2005-02-02

Just plain bizarre military news

What's good is that Serbia has introduced the option for conscientous objectors to fulfill their military service obligation with a civil service alternative. What is bad is that the decision as to whether conscientious objectors fulfill the conditions for an exception from armed service is left to a local commission, which is guided by no law regulating what those conditions are.

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The violent Mr Djokić, photo courtesy of Glas javnosti.

So the application of Dragoslav Djokić of Niš was rejected because of his police record, which the Defence ministry determined to contain "an offence with elements of violence." What terrible thing did Mr Djokić do? Apparently one night in 2002, he walked his dog without a muzzle, for which he received a ticket and a penalty of 400 dinars for "improperly equipping his dog."

Any comparison with retired high-ranking officers charged with gross violations of international humanitarian law who recive full pensions and the concerned attention of prime ministers and Patriarchs is, of course, wholly inappropriate.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i wonder, if the dog had by some chance barked at the police, would he have to serve parachuters or infantry (prasinari, navodno najgora vojna sluzba)...

ludost

Eric Gordy said...

Do you mean the guy, or the dog? In the cartoons dogs are generally sergeants, right?
This law about muzzles is an endless source of selective enforcement. Hardly anybody follows it, and the police give a citation when they feel like it. We have walked our little doggie throughout the region, and the only person who ever gave us trouble was an enterprising HZ conducter who wanted to try to get us to pay for a ticket for him (he didn't succeed). At least in Belgrade, there are so many strays that regulating dogs with owners is pretty much beside the point.