From: malenovi@plains.NoDak.edu (Nikola V. Malenovic )
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Army (VREME NDA 6.Apr 1992)
Date: 6 Apr 92 15:02:15 GMT
Organization: North Dakota State University, Fargo


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                       No. 28, April 6 1992.
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    Army
    ----


                          REGIMENTATION OF THE PUBLIC


    For three weeks  already "The Peoples' Army", the  official paper of the
    Yugoslav Peoples' Army  (JNA), has carried an unusual  text: the results
    of  research  into  the  behavior  of  soldiers  at  war. In question is
    preliminary research  "for further wider examination  of the opinions of
    all those  in all parts  of the armed  forces" i.e. officers,  soldiers,
    reservists, territorial  defence, civilians employed  in JNA, "including
    members of the families of AMP (Active Military Personnel) and civilians
    called back from the territories abandoned by JNA".

    Having  in mind  the aims  of this  research, one  could suppose  that a
    representative  and statistical  valid sample  was interviewed. However,
    those examined in the middle of  December last year, were members of the
    guard  of  mechanized  units  of  the  Novi  Sad  corps,  the  one  that
    "liberated" Vukovar.

    Among the 311 combatants interviewed, 230 were soldiers and 81 officers.
    Most of the average guardsmen of  the former Yugoslavia come from Bosnia
    and Herzegovina  (40 percent) and Serbia  proper (32.6). We do  not know
    where the other 27.4 percent  of the "representatives" came from, except
    on  the   basis  of  national  structure   (Serbs  67.4;  Moslems  12.2;
    Montenegrins and  Croats 4.3 each  and - there  is no data  on the other
    11.8  percent). 60.4  percent declared  themselves as  Orthodox; 9.1  as
    Moslems and 4.3 as Catholic, which means that every fourth guardsman has
    no religious  affiliation or considers it  unimportant. Apart from these
    questions is  the fact that  JNA guardsmen are  secondary school leavers
    (45.2 percent with  four, and 41.7 with three  years of secondary school
    education), or with completed and uncompleted primary schooling.

    "The  Peoples'  Army"  did  not  print  charts  with  the results of the
    research: VREME  offers a picture  of what the  authors of the  texts in
    question considered interesting to the reading public. Without disputing
    the criteria  for the choice of  published results, it can  be seen that
    most of the guardsmen  did not react at all at the  news of the imminent
    fighting, that they felt relieved  on moving into the first battlefields
    because, in their own estimation, they  were prepared for war, they were
    satisfied with the  quality of training given them,  and their war tasks
    and aims  were clear to  them. They were  not only satisfied  with their
    relationship  with  the  officers  and  the  latter's  behavior  on  the
    battlefield,  but with  the moral  support and  example offered to them.
    They qualify their  own behavior in battle as  courageous (38.7) or very
    courageous (9.6) and this was influenced by the high (46.1) or very high
    (20) level of morale in the units.

    At the news of the battle ahead, 22.1 of the soldiers felt depressed and
    very afraid  (there are no data  as to what the  other 6.8 percent felt;
    this is all in all a  third of the JNA elite interviewed). "Uncertainty"
    was  the  dominant  feeling  before  battle  (and this retroactively, on
    having survived, i.e.  in a statistical acceptable volume  they could be
    lying in their own favor), as given  by 14.5 of the interviewees (with a
    quarter of  those whose answers  were not published  this is a  total of
    39.5 percent of the combatants).  Every twelfth guardsman considers that
    he was  sent into battle without  enough training (also, we  do not know
    neither  what  10  percent  said,  nor  what  the  17.7 percent of those
    unsatisfied with the quality of the  half-year to a year's training when
    doing their military service, think).  As against those satisfied by the
    care of the  officers stand a fifth (21.8)  dissatisfied and 9.9 percent
    whose opinions we don't know,  except indirectly, in comparison with the
    fact that every sixth soldier of those whose answers "The Peoples' Army"
    gives, was dissatisfied with the behavior of the officers in battle; the
    thoughts of 19.6 percent are "missing".  At the same time, the officers'
    behavior  in battle  - apart  from positive  - was  judged as  confused,
    indecisive, terrified, cowardly and treacherous.

    A quarter of  the guardsmen interviewed  hold that the  moral support of
    the officers  was small and a  whole third (29.5 percent)  is missing in
    the published  answers. One (on  a personal level  "sensitive") question
    indirectly confirms the objectivity  of the ordinary soldier: two-fifths
    cannot (or do  not wish to) grade their own  bravery in the Vukovar war.
    With the other 11.4 percent whose  thoughts are not published, they make
    up  the larger  part of  the polled  soldiers. The  same (?)  two-fifths
    appear, if we calculated those who qualified the morale in their unit as
    low or otherwise (but their opinion is not published).

    "The Peoples' Army",  to give it credit, did not  hide the fact that the
    "primary elements"  of support to the  Novi Sad guardsmen in  battle was
    the  camaraderie between  the soldiers  and their  individual desire  to
    survive.  These   two  factors  definitely  take   precedence  over  the
    ideological fog  (from the answers  offered), which is  called "bravery"
    and "hatred for the enemy".

    To a  sensible army (not  a contradiction in  terms), nothing more  than
    this little poll is necessary. To a stupid one, nothing is enough.

                                                            Aleksandar Ciric


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                       No. 28, April 6 1992.
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