29.11.2015.

Rotation of Serbian peacekeepers in Lebanon

At the Nis airport "Konstantin Veliki" today, members of the contingent of the Serbian Armed Forces that in the past six months were deployed in the UN mission UNIFIL in Lebanon landed, while the same plane took the officers and soldiers of the infantry company, staff officers and members of national support element to the same peacekeeping mission. The welcoming ceremony and seeing off was attended by Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Milosav Simovic, Commander of the Third Brigade of the Army Brigadier General Mile Jelic, Chief of Staff of the Fourth Army Brigade Colonel Sladjan Stamenkovic, Deputy Head of the Centre for Peacekeeping Operations Colonel Nikola Dejanovic, and relatives and friends of the peacekeepers.

- As part of the contingent of the Serbian Armed Forces, which was in Lebanon for six months, the core consisted of members of the Army and we welcome them today in Nis. They, as well as previous contingents, represented the Serbian Armed Forces and the state of Serbia in a dignified manner, and I am very happy to hear that our officers, NCOs and soldiers are highly respected in Lebanon, especially by the population living there. Today, we are also seeing off a contingent on their way to Lebanon. They will pick up where their predecessors left off and I am sure that they will represent the Serbian Armed Forces in the distant country in a professional, dignified and honourable way – General Simovic said, welcoming one contingent and seeing off the other one to the mission in Lebanon.

Commander of the infantry company, Major Goran Dejanovic, who commanded the unit in the last six months in Lebanon, said that members

of his unit successfully completed all the tasks in accordance with the UN resolution 1107.

- We carried out the tasks very professionally and responsibly, representing our state, military and people in the best possible way - Major Dejanovic said, adding that for the results achieved in the work they had been awarded by the Commander of the UNIFIL mission and the Commander of the Sector "East".

From the Nis airport today, 129 officers, NCOs and soldiers from the infantry company Third Army Brigade, and staff officers and elements of national support left for Lebanon, while the force protection platoon will head off to Lebanon on 3 December this year.

The infantry company, which will in the next six months be commanded by Captain Bosko Vasiljevic, will carry out tasks as an independent unit within the Spanish contingent, while the force protection platoon, led by Lieutenant Djordje Okolic, will act within the Italian contingent.

At this point, 327 members of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces are deployed in multinational operations of the United Nations in the Central African Republic, Cyprus, Lebanon, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Congo and in various EU military operations in Somalia, Mali and the Central African Republic.