Marking the Day of the Peacekeeping Operations Centre and six decades since the first peacekeeping operation in Sinai

Thursday, 17.11.2016 | Multinational Operations

A ceremony at the Peacekeeping Operations Centre has marked today the day of the unit and jubilee of six decades since the first landing of peacekeepers from the region within the UN forces in Sinai.

A ceremony at the Peacekeeping Operations Centre of the Serbian Armed Forces has marked today the day of the unit, 17th November, and jubilee of six decades since the first landing of peacekeepers from the region within the UN forces in Sinai in 1956.

Around the world, 320 Serbian peacekeepers that are currently deployed in 10 UN and EU-led missions, also marked the feast of the Centre, working and with blue berets. On the occasion of the jubilee, the veterans, participants in the missions in Sinai, in Angola, Iraq and Iran, brought together by today's ceremony, put their blue berets again.

Congratulating on the holiday, Major General Slavoljub Janicijevic, Deputy Commander of Joint Operations Command of the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff, reminded that today we are celebrating an important date in our history, as the landing of the Yugoslav army in the Sinai in 1956 was a major feat for much larger, and at that time, better equipped world armies than the then JNA.

– Nevertheless, the Yugoslav Detachment remained in the UN memory as the first contingent that entered the area of operations of any of the UN missions and, during 22 rotations, practically carried out the whole mission. With these traditions and memories, the Peacekeeping Operations Centre, today, as a reference unit of our military, intended for peacekeeping, contributes through training, preparations and support of the deployed forces of the Serbian Armed Forces, to our country, our teams, platoons, troops and contingents, medical element, military observers and staff officers, to be fully prepared and equipped to contribute to the reputation of the Republic of Serbia and the Serbian Armed Forces around the world – General Janicijevic said, adding that members of the Centre, between the two holidays, successfully completed all the tasks.

According to the Chief of the Peacekeeping Operations Centre, Colonel Milivoje Pajovic, strength and ability of any military unit, as well as any other collective, is based on the knowledge and enthusiasm of each of its members.

– We are celebrating our Day in memory of the people who began peacekeeping operations on this day 60 years ago. We are continuing today to follow their paths – Chief of the Peacekeeping Operations Centre said.

In the year behind us, among other things, Colonel Pajovic reminded, the Centre received the UN certificate for performing the UN Staff Officer Course, was admitted to two international associations of the countries contributing troops to peacekeeping operations, while achieving a direct cooperation with the of peacekeeping operations centres of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Hungary and Austria.

During today's ceremony, a short film called "Six Stories from Sinai" was screened as well, which is a sort of testimony of veterans, members of the JNA, about the tasks and everyday life of the JNA Detachment during their stay in UNEF mission in the Sinai Peninsula.

The Day of the Peacekeeping Operations Centre was established last year to commemorate the 17th November, 1956, when the advance party of the first Yugoslav Detachment, which consisted of 44 members, disembarked on Sinai. By that peacekeeping operation, Yugoslav forces began their engagement in peacekeeping missions.