26.09.2015.

Visiting Serbian peacekeepers in the UNIFIL mission in South Lebanon

Members of the Serbian Armed Forces are deployed in UN and EU peacekeeping missions around the world, and the team of Odbrana Media Centre and MFC "Zastava Film" visited 177 Serbian peacekeepers deployed in the UNIFIL in South Lebanon. Their most important task is to restore peace and security along the demarcation line, the so-called "blue line".

According to Commander of the National SAF Contingent in the multinational operation in Lebanon Major Parezanovic, this is the most numerous contingent of the Serbian Armed Forces when it comes to multinational operations.

- We are deployed at four locations, two in the sector "East" and two in the section of the "West". In the sector "East", we are in the UN 72 base, where we have staff officers in the Command of the multinational base, staff officers and NCOs within the Spanish Battalion, the element of national support, infantry platoon and support platoon. Also, we are deployed in the UN 9 -66 base, where we have an infantry company. In the sector "West", in En Nakura, we have staff officers in the Mission Command and in the UN 1-26 base, in which we have a force protection platoon, Major Parezanovic said, and stressed that cooperation with other contingents was at a very high level.

The UNIFIL mission has about 15 thousand peacekeepers from 38 nations, and it is one of the oldest and most numerous UN missions. The multinational UN operation in the Republic of Lebanon (UNIFIL) was established by Resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations No. 425 and 426 of 19 March 1978. Members of the Serbian Armed Forces began their deployment in UNIFIL on 21 December 2010, within the Spanish contingent, with four staff officers in the command of the sector "East" and one staff officer in the command of the Spanish Battalion.

Since 25 November 2012, in addition to the deployed staff officers, another staff officer, 36 members of the infantry platoon and five members of the National Support Element (NSE) have been deployed. Since 24 March 2013, the deployment has been expanded with two staff officers in the UNIFIL command. Since 5 November 2013, an infantry company has been deployed instead of an infantry platoon, and since 11 December 2014, a force protection platoon has been deployed in the sector "West".