Renewed campaign against army not to shake citizens' trust

BELGRADE - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and Chief of the General Staff General Ljubisa Dikovic conferred in Belgrade on Friday on the readiness and modernization of the Serbian Armed Forces (VS), noting that the campaign against the VS will not manage to shake the trust it enjoys with the citizens.

The two officials said that the Serbian Army is performing its regular activities in line with the highest possible standards, the Serbian president's press service released in a statement.

As for the repeated attacks on Chief of the General Staff General Ljubisa Dikovic, the president said that Dikovic is an honorable man, adding that these attacks are obviously an attempt at discrediting and destabilizing the VS.

The attacks are aimed at undermining everything good that has been done in Serbia in the last two and a half years, the president said.

"The Serbian Army is definitely an institution that enjoys great trust of the citizens. It has established excellent cooperation with armies worldwide, and its members, who are serving in the international missions in numerous countries, are achieving only top results," Nikolic said.

"We must not forget how the army helped to save the lives and property of people during the last year's catastrophic floods that hit Serbia," he said.

Nikolic underlined that for this reason it is clear "that this insidious campaign against the VS, which began last year after a major parade marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade in World War II, will not manage to shake the citizens' trust in their army".

The president said that obviously the fact that Serbia is becoming a modern, developed country is contrary to the interests of certain groups of people that...