28.03.2014.

Infantry company of the Second Brigade ready for Lebanon

Evaluation team of the Army Command led by Lieutenant Colonel Goran Markovic assessed today that the infantry company of the 2nd Army Brigade trained to perform tasks within the United Nations mission in Lebanon – UNIFIL.

This is the second unit of a company level, and the fourth unit in total to be deployed by the Serbian Armed Forces to Lebanon to keep peace within the Swedish battalion of blue helmets in this Middle Eastern country.

The last day of the evaluation, which has lasted since 25 March, was attended by Colonel Milivoje Pajovic, Chief of the Peacekeeping Operations Centre, and the four-member team of the Spanish Armed Forces led by Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Manuel Mendoza Perez, future battalion commander in the UNIFIL mission.

Tactical exercise "Serbian Shield 04", to check the competence of our blue helmets, was led by Colonel Muharem Fazlic, Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army Brigade.

Colonel Milivoje Pajovic, Chief of the Peacekeeping Operations Centre of the Joint Operations Command of the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff emphasised that the demands placed before the participants in multinational operations under the UN flag are very high and must be strictly observed. He pointed out that all the experiences which our members bring from the missions around the world – they gather it, systematize and incorporate it into training so that each subsequent contingent to be deployed outside the borders of our country could be even better prepared to perform the task effectively and safely.

Colonel Muharem Fazlic said that the members of the infantry company from the 2nd Brigade are fully prepared to carry out all the tasks in the UNIFIL mission. Fazlic said that it was possible in the recent days to clearly identify and measure the level of training of the members of the company through a total of 36 different tactical tasks placed before them. He said that the tasks or "incidents" were conceived so as to be in accordance with the possible scenarios which our members could encounter on the ground. These situations, underlined Fazlic, were initiated during the exercise unannounced, at different times of the day and night, in order to check the peacekeepers to the last detail.

"Serbian Shield 04", according to Lieutenant Colonel Mendoza under whose command the company of the Serbian peacekeepers in Lebanon will be, was very complex and 130 members of the Serbian Armed Forces showed a high level of competence for the tasks they will face in UNIFIL. He pointed out that the infantrymen of the 2nd Brigade showed a high level of military skills and full compliance with the standards of the mission. Bearing in mind the results which the previous contingents of the Serbian Armed Forces demonstrated in Lebanon, Mendoza believes that cooperation with the Serbian Armed Forces will be very good.

Captain Goran Roganovic, who will be commanding officer of our company in the peacekeeping mission, assessed the evaluation as very successful, but he reminded that behind it there are several months of intensive training preceded by strict selection of candidates. He said that the morale of the unit is at a high level, which could be seen in the recent days in day and night exercise activities.