Defence Minister Svinarov to Insist in Parliament that Army Become Professional by 2006.

 

Tryavna, Central Bulgaria, June 29 (BTA) - Defence Minister Nikolai Svinarov will insist in Parliament that the Bulgarian army become professional by 2006.

 

Svinarov confirm it in an interview for BTA on Saturday.

 

A few days ago he and the Chief of General Staff of the Army, Gen. Nikola Kolev, proposed to the parliamentary Committee on Foreign Policy, Defence and Security to make the army a professional one by 2006, and not by 2010 as initially planned.

 

Talking to BTA, Svinarov set forth his arguments in support of this proposal.

 

In his view, the period of six or nine months that conscripts spend in the army is absolutely insufficient for the high technologies servicemen are supposed to master.

 

Practically, conscripts have turned to a great extent from persons directly guaranteeing this country's defence and security into a kind of auxiliary personnel. They cannot master in detail the high-tech materiel. Besides, they are not motivated to do it because in six or nine months conscripts have got to learn they will not need later in life.

 

According to Svinarov, when the army becomes professional, the level of selection and discipline will be better. Rampant unemployment in this country will allow the best selection possible.

 

In Svinarov's opinion, the problem should be resolved following a broad and open public discussion, something that all countries reforming their armies did.

 

The Bulgarian Defence Minister is attending an international workshop on "Bulgaria's Accession to NATO: Challenges and Prospects for Strengthening Security and Stability in Southeastern Europe" which opened in Tryavna.

 

Participating in the workshop are 40 officials, including ten military attaches of NATO member states and businessmen conducting trade with members of the Alliance, BTA was told by Col. Ivan Ivanov, President of the Anciens Association of the NATO Defence College in Rome. The Association co-organized the forum together with the Open Society Foundation.

 

The topics discussed by the participants include NATO's enlargement within the context of the new geostrategic policy, the reform of the Bulgarian army, regional security and Bulgaria as a zone of stability in the Balkans.

 

"Wars have been waged in Southeastern Europe in the last ten decade and now there is high tension and instability in the region," Svinarov said. He emphasized that a new security and support are needed. He did not pass in silence the problems in the region - terrorism, smuggling drugs and weapons, trafficking humans, underdeveloped democracy in some countries. In his view, the region should cope with problems such as economic instability, corruption and rampant unemployment.

 

Accentuating that Bulgaria is a zone of stability in the Balkans, Svinarov praised its successful ethnic model and cited the ruling coalition's partnership with the largely ethnic Turks Movement for Rights and Freedoms.