2005-04-20

Tourists not to be subject to forced mobilisation

Since Serbia-Montenegro does not relieve its citizens living in other countries of the obligation of military service, one barrier to young people visiting their families, say, for a summer jaunt, has been the possibility that they will be arrested at the border and forcibly mobilised, which can nearly ruin anybody's vacation. Now the federal defence minister Prvoslav Davinić has agreed that people who can prove that their stay in another country is "justified" will not be kidnapped into servitude between now and 1 October, reports Dnevnik. The next task is to distill this charming practice down into an appealing slogan for tourism.

2 comments:

Katja R. said...

Visit beautiful Pancevo, we promise you can go home again!

No realy.. we mean it....
um who decides what is a justified stay abroad? I used to know one Serbian draft dodger, he was a schoolmate of my kids. He stayed in high school until he was 21, and then married a nice American girl and stayed. A gain for America and a loss for Serbia.

Eric Gordy said...

The article actually does have some examples of things that are "justified" -- basically they are asking people to show either that they are students or employed. There is not enough information to tell whether this is strictly regulated by law or a matter of somebody's discretion. But it seems as though regardless of "justification," the ministry says that there will be no cases brought until 1 October. Yes, it is a bit vague. It does seem as though the temporary summer amnesty has been done for the past two years.