Who are we?

We are citizens of Serbia and Montenegro, either born abroad, migrated as children or left the country during 1990s, unwilling to participate in the senseless wars in the region of former Yugoslavia, hoping to find better life, both for us and our families. All of us hoped that one day we would be able to contribute to our country once again with our knowledge and experience.

We have a common serious problem. Our country, Serbia and Montenegro, has given us an ultimatum: either to fulfil the conscription duty, or to fulfil our moral responsibilities towards our families. Doing both in our situation is impossible.

Such an ultimatum has one meaning only – Serbia & Montenegro is rejecting its own citizens. We are denied of the rights granted by the core of the country’s law. Furthermore, our country does not observe the public decrees issued. While doing so, the country has proclaimed us criminals and closed its borders on us. On the other hand, the communities where we live and work abroad accept, respect and value us as rightful members.

Finally, those of us who want to renonunce Serbia & Montenegro citizenship are also denied of their right. The apparatus closed the magic gates of its bureaucratic maze on us by conditioning citizenship renouncement with conscription duty fulfilment.


Our demands

We do not ask for a special status. We do not see ourselves as more privileged citizens than those living in Serbia and Montenegro. We simply ask for the rights granted by the law of the army of Serbia and Montenegro (even if it is quite inadequate for 21st century Europe) and those rights granted by the civil authorities to be respected.

To summarise, we:

1. Demand for all conscripts with dual nationality to be able to practice the right, withheld under Article 305 of the Law of army of Serbia and Montenegro, which states that conscripts with dual nationality, living abroad, can not be drafted, unless they wish so. Those individuals should request a permission if they wish to complete their military service. Blatantly, the army high command refuses to apply this law due to a loophole that allows it to decide whether the conscript lives abroad permanently or not. If it decides that the conscript for any reason does not live abroad permanently, according to its own interpretation, the Article 305 of the law is not applied. Valid applications to the high command are refused in almost all cases with a reply consisting of five words only: “conscript does not meet the criteria”. E.g. even those with Canadian citizenship that permanently live in Canada are officially disallowed to live in Canada.

2. Demand that the decree adopted by the elected civil authorities and the defence minister is observed. This decree regulates the rights and obligations of conscripts who live abroad. The decree allows the men above the age of 27 be given a permission to reside abroad. It is based on employment, studies, financial responsibilities, mortgages, marriage to an alien, medical treatment, company ownership, etc. The apparatus does not apply this decree, while it is unclear which institution should apply it, due to the bureaucratic chaos that exists between the ministry of defence, the foreign ministry and the army high command.

3. Demand that the criminal records raised against conscripts, who have tried to obtain their rights described under (1) and (2) but where unsuccessful, are cleared by an amnesty. This is due to the criminal records being filed due to serious omissions by the state (or in other words the army) and not by the conscript.

4. Demand that the condition that prevents renouncement of citizenship is lifted.