Green Network: Croatian Army Lacking in Military Culture
Their recent four-day visit to the UK Ministry of Defence was aimed the assist them in the preparation for an intensive advocacy activities to introduce civilian supervision over the military’s measures for environmental protection. Milan Medic, a member of the delegation, presented a comparison of supervision of military facilities in the UK and Croatia. The Croatian delegation visited MOD’s Sustainable Development Department in London and Salisbury Plain, MOD’s largest training ground. There, they saw the methods of civilian supervision over environmental protection measures, as well as forms of cooperation and reporting to the local communities by military representatives. The Croatian delegation included Zeljka Lukesic, the Leader of the Partnership for the Environment project; Milan Medic, Member of the Boards of PCAP Int. Croatia; Rudolf Mihael Brlecic, retired general of Croatian Army and member of the expert working group of Karlovac Environmental Protection Association; and Tomislav Toth from the Department of Environmental Protection at HHO. The Croatian Defence Law prescribes that only military inspections shall be competent to supervise activities of Croatian armed forces. Therefore, the Army is allowed to “supervise itself”, which prevents the impartial and expert civilian supervision over the activities of the armed forces in general, but also in the area of environmental protection. “In addition, Croatian Ministry of Defense (MORH) refuses to provide the findings of its inspections for public scrutiny”, said Zeljka Lukesic and proposed urgent harmonization of Croatian legislation with regulations valid in EU and NATO. "Let me remind you that NATO forces respect the local procedures in host countries and in Croatia there is no procedure at all. The last thing we need at this time is five more allied armies rampaging through the country under the same conditions. That is out of question”, Milan Medic was adamant in his presentation. Describing their visit to Salisbury Plain, Rudolf Brlecic said that the Croatian delegation was allowed a tour of the training grounds and were able to see everything of interest, from soil composition, drainage systems, to animal protection methods. "We could apply all of their experiences; they are fully transparent in that regart”, said Brlecic. Asked why we treat everything as top secret, while in Britain everything is open, he responded that our military lacks the proper military culture. According to Medic, the associations involved in the Green Network and HHO, together with associations from Istria and Dalmatia, demand from the President, the Government and the Sabor to introduce similar measures in Croatia, following the examples of European countries. He announced that an initiative to change to Law on Defense (Article 13 and 14) will be submitted for the next session of the Sabor, to introduce civilian overview over military activities. In the past, we went to the Ministry of Defense, but they believe that it the problems will be solved if they persist in not giving an answer for a sufficient period of time. That policy will not work, for, without civilian supervision of military training grounds and activities in general, there will be no entry into EU or NATO. “We find it unacceptable that our delegation was received by the UK MOD, but not by the Croatian”, concluded the debate the representatives of the Green Network. |
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