POLAND: Poland creates professional army, conscription but reforms could be costly

Record ID: 643702

  • Title: POLAND: Poland creates professional army, conscription but reforms could be costly
  • Date: 12th September 2008
  • Summary: (CEEF) REMBERTOW, POLAND (RECENT) (REUTERS) RECRUIT WALKING DOWN LINE OF TANKS
  • Embargoed: 27th September 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Poland
  • Country: Poland
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAD9QTOP1M46M1XWM4SDKPJ0TP4
  • Story Text: Poland's plans to scrap compulsory military service have delighted young men seeking an army career and those hoping to escape military service, but some experts worry the reform may be hastily prepared and too costly.
    This summer, just before Russia's war with Georgia, the Polish government approved a long-planned bill aligning the NATO member with others in Europe by ending conscription.
    But in a country feeling more vulnerable as Russia flexes its military muscle, some fear the decision will prove dangerous.
    Coinciding with rising tensions after Warsaw decided at the height of the Georgia conflict to allow the United States to station parts of a missile shield on its soil, the reform aims to trim down the military to a professional force.
    Russia has said it would respond to the shield deal, which it sees as a threat to its own national security, with more than just a diplomatic protest.
    The draft law would end conscription next year and create a fully professional, better-paid military of 120,000 people by 2010, down from the mainly conscript force of 124,000 now.
    Where the current army includes 76,000 full-time soldiers, the slimmed-down one would comprise around 90,000.
    Parliament is expected to endorse the plan soon.
    To take effect, it must then be signed by President Lech Kaczynski, a strong supporter of a modern, professional army.
    Poland, NATO's largest ex-communist member state, has deployed some 3,000 soldiers on foreign missions in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Syria and Chad. Itits engagement in Iraq in October.
    With Poland's booming economy already suffering labour shortages in some sectors, some experts doubt that the revamped army will be able to lure enough skilled young men.
    But Private Adam Wilk, a conscript in the last intake, told Reuters his experience in the army had helped him decide he really wants to be a professional soldier.
    "The career path is really broad, from a private to colonel and general. Being sent on missions, where you can test yourself, gain new experiences, learn languages, and courses which may come in handy later in regular life after you leave the military," he said.
    The army's structural changes alone are estimated to cost up to 5 billion zloty (2.10 billion USD) until 2010, and that excludes new equipment, apartments, training and promised higher wages.
    The army's overall budget stands at around 25 billion zloty and the average mid-level salary is close to 3,000 zlotys (1,290 USD) with no side jobs allowed.
    Some experts say the government has allowed too little time to implement the reform, though it is much needed to catch up with the standards of other European Union countries. Some say Poland needs a professional army to enforce its position within NATO as a contributor of international efforts, rather than a country which aims to protect only its land borders.
    Security analyst and professor at the Warsaw University Roman Kuzniar says professional soldiers who are willing to serve abroad will strengthen Poland's position in NATO.
    "It's about a soldier who will be able to use more advanced and technologically complex equipment. A soldier who will agree to be sent not to defend the borders on the Bug or Odra rivers, so to say, where everybody - soldiers and civilians die fighting for the homeland, but somewhere in Afghanistan, for pay," Kuzniar says. "He will go there to stabilise the security situation because we think, the Polish government and other governments of democratic and NATO countries think the issue of our security is being decided over there. Everybody's security - Poland's, the United Kingdom's, USA and Germany's." he added.
    Kuzniar stressed that Poland's active participation in international missions will prove valuable for guaranteeing long-term security of its borders.
    "We have to join the dominant trend within the Northern Atlantic Treaty. If we don't want to be a peripheral country, and we cannot afford to do this considering our geo-political position, we have to have a military better than most of the countries in the alliance." Kuzniar says.
    "This is not only because of our geo-strategic position, and our more or less substantial fears, but because of a need to keep our position within the Northern Atlantic Treaty, the readiness to send well-trained and well-equipped troops."
    Until now, all Polish men below the age of 60 were obliged to perform up to nine months service in the military.
    The reform also comes as a relief to the many young men who want to avoid military service. Polish internet forums are full of advice of how to hurt yourself just enough to get a "D" category from the army's medical commission, meaning effective inability to serve.
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