SAF contingent seen off to UN mission in Cyprus

Today, at Nis barracks Mija Stanimirovic, SAF members were seen off to the UNFICYP mission in Cyprus. The event was attended by Army Commander Major General Milosav Simovic, Third Brigade Commander Brigadier General Mile Jelic, commanders of units and institutions from Nis garrison, representatives of Nis, family members, relatives and friends of SAF members that are referred to the multinational operation.

Army Commander Major General Milosav Simovic handed the state flag of the Republic of Serbia to Captain Marko Markovic, commander of the firing platoon that is being referred to the peacekeeping mission and wished them to represent the unit, the Armed Forces of Serbia and the Republic of Serbia with pride and honor.

Addressing the present, General Simovic stressed that currently 212 Army members are deployed in multinational operation in Cyprus, Lebanon, Congo, Somalia, Ivory Coast and the Central African Republic.

“The firing platoon of the Mixed Artillery Brigade will be the eighth shift from Army formation that is deployed in Cyprus within the Hungarian-Slovakian contingent”, said General Simovic and added: “I expect that you will complete all assigned tasks in the best possible way and that you will, as your predecessors have, worthily represent the Republic of Serbia and the Armed Forces of Serbia”.

Senior staff and soldiers of the firing platoon of the Mixed Artillery Brigade have months of training behind them, and this is why, according to the platoon commander Captain Marko Markovic, there are no issues related to conducting tasks in the multinational operation.

“The platoon is trained and prepared for conducting all tasks in the mission. We have been prepared by people who had already been deployed in the mission, while some of us have been sighting the zone of the peacekeeping operation, so we have already overviewed all details of the deployment. We are proud that we will represent the Armed Forces of Serbia during this mission and that we will be able to aptly present the face of a member of our military and our state”, Captain Markovic said.

The firing platoon of the Mixed Artillery Brigade will be in Cyprus within the Slovakian contingent, that is, in the company that will be comprised of one platoon from each of the armed forces of Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia. Members of the platoon will take the bus for Budapest tomorrow, from where they will fly to Cyprus.