According to plans, the Hungarian contingent serving in Kosovo is going to receive 12 refurbished Humvee combat vehicles in December, Minister of Defence Csaba Hende announced during his visit to the Hungarian troops serving with the NATO-led international peacekeeping force (Kosovo Force, KFOR) in the northern part of Kosovo.

The Minister of Defence said that the US military would leave behind the armored all-terrain vehicles for the Hungarian forces, and these assets would significantly increase the effectiveness of presence patrols conducted by Hungarian forces.

At the weekend, Csaba Hende is traveling to Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina to inspect the Hungarian troops serving with international peacekeeping missions in the Western Balkans. On Saturday, first he visited the KFOR Multinational Battle Group East (MNBG) forward command post (FCP) at Camp Novo Selo, and then went on to visit Camp Nothing Hill. Of the Hungarian soldiers deployed at this latter base, many have earlier served in Afghanistan.

Minister Hende told Hungarian News Agency MTI that the drawdown of forces from Afghanistan created an opportunity to expand the Western Balkans mission, and the service with ISAF provided a good school for Hungarian troops. Among others, they can now use the combat tactics learned in Afghanistan during their patrolling along the Kosovo–Serbian border.

He added that the KFOR units – which comprise the Hungarian soldiers – guarantee the security of Serbian cultural heritage sites, including ancient Orthodox monasteries, and thereby contribute to the improvement of the relations between Serbia and Hungary.

He pointed out that all commanders used “superlatives” when speaking about the Hungarian troops’ performance, which proves that it was a good decision to rebuild officer and NCO training in Hungary on a new basis.

Col. Mike Dittamo, the new deputy commanding officer of KFOR Multinational Battle Group East received Minister Hende in Camp Novo Selo. After the meeting, the colonel said that this was the second time he had served together with Hungarian troops, and was very satisfied with their work. Cooperation among US and Hungarian officers is quite good, and the Hungarians are working by the same high standards as the Americans, he added.

Partnership is all the more important to Dittamo because he is in charge of coordinating the work of soldiers from 13 nations, in the interest of complex task execution.

At the same time, the Hungarian troops serving in Camp Nothing Hill have a complex mission too, as they are assigned sensitive security tasks in the region of North Kosovo which comprises Serbian majorities, the US colonel said.

Capt. Gergely Bánfalvi, the commander of the Hungarian maneuver company stationed in Camp Nothing Hill told the journalists on the spot that the Hungarians chiefly execute patrolling and reconnaissance tasks and are trained in crowd riot control (CRC) techniques as well.

At the same time, they had to prepare themselves for the appearance of organized criminal groups, and the eruption of ethnic violence poses a further danger, he added. In all these activities, they can make use of the lessons learned in Afghanistan, the captain said.

More than 700 Hungarian troops are deployed in various peacekeeping missions around the world. More than 350 of them are serving with the NATO-led KFOR in Kosovo, and 150 of them with the peacekeeping force of the European Union (EUFOR) as part of Operation Althea which is a guarantee of maintaining the security situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The tasks of both international missions include the following: to maintain the ceasefire, disband irregular forces, create a safe and secure environment, deliver humanitarian aid, conduct demining and border control and ensure freedom of movement.

According to plans, Minister Hende continues his programme with visiting Hungarian troops in Camp Butmir, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

(MTI)