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Ceremony marking the departure of SAF members for Kosovo

On Thursday, 11 February, a ceremony took place at Ivan Cankar Military Post in Vrhnika marking the departure of the 21st Contingent of the Slovenian Armed Forces for a six-month international operation KFOR.

The Contingent which consists of 349 members from various SAF units will take over the tasks in Kosovo at the end of this month. The soldiers were addressed by State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence Uroš Krek who appealed to them to always trust in their preparedness and experience, as well as in their commanding officers. He added that despite the changed security environment, lower risk and decreased size of international forces in Kosovo they would bear huge responsibility in this area. He also addressed current topics, especially the petition for the abolishment of the Slovenian Armed Forces which has appeared in the public. State Secretary said that this abolishment would, among other things, entail also the disregard of values related to Slovenian military tradition, patriotism, as well as to the enforcement of Slovenian sovereignty.

The KFOR Force is entering the next phase of operation, the so called Deterrence Presence, which means the transformation of commands and a gradual decrease in manoeuvre forces. The KFOR Force currently consists of 10000 members; however, a gradual decrease in its size is predicted for the next two years. The tasks of the Slovenian Contingent remain unchanged: the provision of secure environment and freedom of movement, as well as the creation of conditions for the transfer of responsibility to civil authorities. The 21st Slovenian Contingent consists of two manoeuvre companies with logistic element, three liaison monitoring teams, a military police platoon and national support element. Individual SAF members will perform their duties at the KFOR Command in Priština and Regional Command-West in Peč. Slovenian soldiers will be active in the municipalities of Klina, Istok, Vučitrn and in Priština.