Merchant marine:
note: see entry for Montenegro
Military Serbia
Military branches:
Serbian Armed Forces (Vojska Srbije, VS): Serbian Land Forces
(Kopnene Vojska, KoV), Air Force and Air Defense Force
(Vozduhoplostvo i Protivozduhoplovna Odbrana, ViPO), naval force to
be determined (2006)
Military service age and obligation: peacetime service obligation begins at age 17 and lasts until age 60 for men and 50 for women; under a state of war or impending war, the obligation can begin at age 16 and be extended beyond 60 (2006)
Military expenditures - dollar figure: $14.85 million
Transnational Issues Serbia
Disputes - international:
the final status of the Serbian province of Kosovo remains
unresolved and several thousand peacekeepers from the UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) have administered the
region since 1999, with Kosovar Albanians overwhelmingly supporting
and Serbian officials opposing Kosovo independence; the
international community had agreed to begin a process to determine
final status but contingency of solidifying multi-ethnic democracy
in Kosovo has not been satisfied; ethnic Albanians in Kosovo refuse
demarcation of the boundary with Macedonia in accordance with the
2000 Macedonia-Serbia and Montenegro delimitation agreement; Serbia
and Montenegro delimited about half of the boundary with Bosnia and
Herzegovina, but sections with Serbia along the Drina River remain
in dispute
Refugees and internally displaced persons:
refugees (country of origin): 180,117 (Croatia); 95,297 (Bosnia and
Herzegovina)
IDPs: 225,000 - 251,000 (mostly ethnic Serbs and Roma who fled
Kosovo in 1999) (2005)
Illicit drugs:
transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin moving to Western
Europe on the Balkan route; economy vulnerable to money laundering
This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006