15.12.2009.

Ceremony in the Czech Embassy

Minister of Defense of the Czech Republic Martin Bartak presented the officer sabers of General Aleksandar Frantisek Zah to the Head of the Military Academy Brig. Gen. Mladen Vuruna and the Dean of the Defense UNiversity of the Czech Republic Brig. Gen. in retirement Rudolph Urban at a ceremony held last night in the Czech Embassy.

The sabers were presented as an acknowledgement for successful cooperation of these two university rank institutions, and were made as replicas of this weapon which General Zach bore, who was one of the founders of military education in Serbia.

The ceremony was also attended by Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac, SAF CHOD LTG Miloje Miletic, Ambassador of the Czech Republic Hana Hubackova as well as numerous guests from the defense system.

Minister Sutanovac on that occasion said that there would be no stable or strong army without a strong and stable army which in his words entails a well organized military educational system.

He reminded that much had been done in terms of reform which was crowned by the accreditation of the Military and the Military Medical Academy. Sutanovac thanked the ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic for their help on the project, adding that he expected the military university to be founded next year when the Military Academy would celebrate its 165th birthday.

Minister Bartak reiterated that the Czech Republic would continue to support Serbia in European and Euro-Atlantic integrations and the reforms of the defense system. Furthermore, as he pointed out, one of the main points of future cooperation would be military education, which has its symbolism, since General Aleksandar Frantisek Zah, Czech in origin, was one of the fo8unders of the Military Academy.

Brig. Gen. Vuruna stressed that he received this acknowledgement on behalf of the Military Academy with a feeling of honour saying he would wear this with pride.
Since education was one of the main preconditions for one country’s progress, he expressed his pleasure at seeing that joint work on making the Military Academy an accredited institution has been successful.
DA of the Czech Republic Vladimir Huljak also presented plaques to the former Head of the Academy, Major General in retirement Vidosav Kovacevic as well as to Joze Sivacek, former dean of the Academy.