Janez Janša Believes Slovenia is Not Threatened

Ljubljana, 13 September - The Slovene Minister of Defence Janez Janša at today's press conference reported on the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army from Slovenia. Minister Janša said that there are currently still 3,430 members of the regular army in Slovenia and around 500 members of the special forces, whose task is mainly to guard the regular units. There are also still 70 tanks and 30 armoured transporters in Slovenia - which only amounts to 10 percent of the firepower that the YPA had at its disposal the moment it attacked the republic. Janez Janša is therefore of the opinion that these units no longer pose any real threat to Slovenia. The army's withdrawal from Slovenia is progressing somewhat slower than initially planned, but the withdrawal will probably have been carried out in its entirety by October 18, - the deadline set for the withdrawal by the Yugoslav Presidency. Although difficulties are still cropping up regarding the return of arms, the Yugoslav Army did agree to the principle of reciprocity, said Janša. The difficulties are arising above all because the army does not have exact records pertaining to its own armament and is, among other things, demanding the return of 70,000 anti-tank rockets from the Slovene Territorial Defence, although the army never at any given time even had so many anti-tank rockets in its entire arsenal in Slovenia. The army also still refuses in some cases to allow the Territorial Defence to survey all the weapons magazines it seized from the Slovene TD last year.