The proposal to reintroduce compulsory military service has drawn supporters and opponents to the streets.
Smalls-scale protests “for” and “against” the reintroduction of compulsory military service were organized almost simultaneously on Saturday in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence in Zagreb. While one side claims that Croatia needs compulsory military service because it would have a good effect on young people, others say they will not send their children to the army.
Protesters against the military service, organized by the Workers’ Front, demanded that the government should rather invest funds in education and not in the military. “You should build factories, not military barracks”, also said the protesters. We want a society that will invest in education, science, culture and health, and not in planes, helicopters, tanks, tents, which are not even produced in Croatia, because those who are in power have destroyed factories, said the protesters.
They carried banners with inscriptions “a worker, not a warrior”, “cannon fodder will not feed hungry people”, “war against militarization”, “send your children to the army, and not ours”, “the war is over”, “we will not die for tycoons and politicians”, and “the society needs education, and not militarization”.
They demanded a better and more just society, a society of tolerance and solidarity, rather than the one which will encourage preparation for conflicts. Workers, if they are employed, work for pittance and wait for their wages for months, people are fleeing Croatia and therefore it is necessary, according to the protesters, “to resist the political elites which are trying to force people into divisions and conflicts, even to the war, in which it is not their children who will perish”. “We have our own dreams, we do not want a war”, said a young man, adding that young people should travel to Germany as tourists, and not as “slaves”.
Marko Milošević from the Workers’ Front said that no one wanted to fight a war for the interests of the NATO geopolitical elite. The real enemies are not elsewhere, but they are among us, they are those you say they would fight for this country to the last drop of blood, but not their own blood, said Milošević, adding that there are disabled children without health insurance, while politicians and tycoons are riding around in limousines, yachts and helicopters.
Close by, a separate protest in support of compulsory military service was organized by the Association of Croatian War Veterans from Đurđevac. The protest was joined by Member of Parliament Željko Glasnović. He said that Croatia should, following other states, have active or passive reserve forces and pointed out that Croatia has an obligation to NATO “to increase military budget to two percent”. He said that recent events, joint military exercises, attempted military coup in Montenegro, the situation in the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, demanded the introduction of military training.
“Who can be against that? They are clowns, remains of the Yugoslav regime. They used to celebrate when they had to go to the Yugoslav National Army. They are against everything which is Croatian”, said Glasnović, asked about the other protest. He added that young men are getting more feminized with each passing year. “Perhaps there are too much female hormones in the water”, said Glasnović bizarrely.
The protests were accompanied by a large presence of riot police, which separated the two groups.
