Opposition plans ‘a professional, powerful and more modern National Guard’
By Jacqueline Theodoulou
OPPOSITION DISY is proposing the modernisation of the National Guard and reduction of military service to 14 months, with the ultimate aim of transforming the NG into a more effective, semi-professional army, said the party’s Vice-president and Deputy member of the House Defence Committee Socratis Hasikos yesterday.
But Defence Minister Kyriacos Mavronicolas, described DISY’s proposal as “re-heated food” and expressed his sadness at the fact that matters of state defence are being discussed as part of a pre-election campaign.
“The discussion of such matters creates unnecessary agitation within the army,” commented Mavronicolas at a press conference yesterday, who also wondered why the specific proposal had not been submitted to the House Defence Committee but instead had been at media levels for the past six months.
Hasikos maintains that DISY’s proposal will assist in the government’s efforts to promote the idea of disengagement, demining and demilitarisation, whether this policy is adjusted in the near future or in the event that the Cyprus problem is not resolved soon.
The detailed study carried out by a private office on the matter, which was presented to the Ministers of Finance and Defence last month, was given to the public yesterday “so that a public dialogue over the proposal can commence”, said Hasikos.
According to the study, the realisation of the DISY proposal will see an immediate development in economy for the years 2006-2025 (£1.1 billion or 15 per cent of today’s GDP), which will contribute to the immediate strengthening of state income (£445 million or 5.5 per cent of today’s GDP). It will also enable the increase of defence expenses (£27 million) without burdening the public tax-wise.
At the same time, the proposal will allow the usage of bigger resources for the purchase of much-needed modern military equipment (£46 million) as well as the better education on using it by members of the NG.
“Which translates into a professional, powerful and consequently, more modern National Guard,” Hasikos explained.
Among others, DISY proposes the gradual employment of 2,500 new professional soldiers on the basis of a more improved service institution, the reduction of military service to 14 months (it is currently 24 months), the improvement of the education standards of soldiers and the reduction of reserves.
And his party’s proposal cannot be considered as a “pre-election firecracker” added Hasikos, because this is a proposal that was submitted quite a long time ago.
“The (DISY) proposal has been at media levels for six months now without DISY daring to submit it to the Defence Committee,” replied Mavronicolas. “I believe it is wrong to discuss this matter, just weeks before Parliament ends and before the House elections begin.”
Mavronicolas reminded DISY of the reality that exists in Cyprus with the presence of the Turkish occupying forces and the existence of the 180km-long demarcation line.
“We have the occupying presence to deal with, which is modern and positioned in an extremely threatening location and which according to NG estimations has an army of 43,000 soldiers,” said the Minister.
The NG has carried out its own studies on the feasibility of reducing military service, he added, which have shown the defence of Cyprus demands the NG to maintain staff which amounts to one third of the occupying forces, which is 150,000.
For DISY’s proposal to work, he continued, and military service to be reduced to 14 months, the NG will need 4,500 permanent non-commissioned officers as opposed to the 2,500 that DISY claimed.
He also mentioned that in the past three years, the Defence ministry has been following a frugal program in the frame of the harmonisation of the Cypriot economy with the Maastricht criteria and has an average £70 million budget for defence armoury, compared to the previous government’s £156 million annual budget.
“It makes one wonder why the previous government, which had such financial prosperity in the defence sector, didn’t think of moving ahead with the employment of more non-commissioned officers”, said Mavronicolas.
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