Last week the Slovenian Army was supposed to assess the level of operational preparedness of the contingent due to be sent to Latvia in June. However, the evaluation could not be performed. Many soldiers took sick leave and at the end there was less than 70 percent of the contingent members on duty on the scheduled day for the assessment. The required percentage of present members for the assessing of a contingent is 90 percent. Perhaps, just a coincidence?

The contingent, preparing to leave for Latvia, should have already completed its training with last week's final assessment test at the Edvard Peperko Barracks. However, instead of the 46 contingent members, only 32 arrived for the evaluation. The number of soldiers on duty today was 36. The press officer of the Slovenian Armed Forces, Simon Korez, said encouraging any speculation at this point could be "harmful for those people who are either sick or have to take care of their family members".
How are international missions paid?
Darko Milenković from the Defence Ministry Trade Union was more direct. "We have a group of male and female soldiers who have either gotten ill or have decided to put pressure on their superiors in such a way in order to tell them how they want to be paid." According to the trade union the soldiers still know nothing about their international mission salaries. "The problem occurred when we and our soldiers received information that they could end up being paid as if going to an international exercise, which would amount to 1,500 euros gross for a month," explained Milenković.
Today, the Slovenian Army states that the soldiers will be paid the same as in every other mission - around 3,000 euros with bonuses included. Mr. Korez also explained that the soldiers in question were already informed about the method of payment: "They've been acquainted with the nominal base of the salary, which is around 1.400 euros, and they have also been informed that they will receive additional benefits. However, we could not give them the precise amount of benefits to paid out."
The regulation, which will specify the salaries, is to be adopted by the government next week. The army is confident that the deployment of the soldiers will happen according to plan - that is until the end of June. The army says it also has a back-up plan in case the sick leaves are prolonged. That means Slovenia should be safe from any NATO embarrassment.
Metka Majer, TV Slovenija; translated by K. J.