Official Send-Off for the Contingent of the Serbian Armed Forces to the UN Mission in Central African Republic

Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin and Chief of General Starr of the Serbian Armed Forces General Ljubiša Diković with the members of their Boards, attended today the official send-off organised in the barracks “Banjica 2” in Belgrade for the seventh contingent of the Serbian Armed Forces to the UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).

 

Our 70 members of the Serbian Armed Forces will start their journey to the Central African Republic, and in the next six months they will be part of a field hospital, and be engaged on providing medical treatment to the forces in the MINUSCA operation.

 

Speaking to the Serbian peacekeepers, their families and superior officers, Minister Vulin pointed out that every time that we sent off our peacekeepers to the Central African Republic or in any other peacekeeping mission, we did that with mixed emotions.

 

- We are proud of them, proud of their knowledge, their expertise, their courage, their humanity, and yet again, we are worried, although we will not admit it to them, about how it will be like for them, what will wait for them there because they are going so far away. The members of the Serbian Armed Forces have always gone far away, and they have always gone where it is difficult. The members of the Serbian Armed Forces go to places that others would avoid, but they are always ready, because of their armed forces, because of their country, because of their people to do what others would not, and not only in peacekeeping missions. When others start to waver, the courage of our members is just beginning. You are going to a country torn by hatred, torn by suffering, and you are coming from a nation which, just like any other, got to know hatred and suffering through its history. It is precisely why you can understand the people in whose country you are going, and it is precisely why you can accept somebody else’s suffering as your own, because you come from the people which has always accepted everyone’s suffering as its own and every child whose childhood was stopped by hatred and evil. They will have an ally in you, they will have your support, and a person who understands them – Minister Vulin stressed.

 

According to his words, that is perhaps the reason why they appreciate and like our members wherever they go, because they do not forget the suffering of their own people and they will not cause it to others.

 

- Your knowledge, your professionalism, your expertise recommend you for each of these tasks, and wherever we send you we do not worry and we know that we have sent the best. Whenever you go, you execute your tasks with the highest level of professionalism, as experts – self-assured and confident people. But they say that there are others who know as much as you, but there are no others who understand the suffering, who understand the hatred, who understand how the suffering and hatred should be dealt with. There are no others like that and that is why you go not only as representatives of a profession, you do not go just to administer a medicine, you do not go just to identify strange and sometimes unknown and hidden signs of rare tropical diseases, but you go there to give hope, you go there to restore the faith in human kind to some child, man or woman who have lost faith in humanity. That is why you go and maybe that is the reason why they appreciate and like you so much – the minister of defence pointed out.

 

He sent a message to the gathered peacekeepers that that we would patiently wait for their return, to hear a word from them, that we would worry about them even when we did not admit it to them and rejoice at their every success and word sent from them.

 

- We will be patient and wait for you to return, and you will spread the glory of this flag that you are carrying with you today that you will always carry with you, and the name of our river Morava that you will show and teach the others about its meaning. More than anything you will show what the nation and what the people from which you come are like. Long live the Serbian Armed Forces! Long live Serbia! – said Minister Vulin at the end of his address.

 

Commander of the Serbian contingent in MINUSCA mission is going to be Colonel Goran Radosavljević from Joint Operations Command of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, and the Commander of the field hospital in the seventh rotation is going to be Lieutenant Colonel Dr Danilo Joković.

 

Later during the celebration, Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin conferred the flag of the Republic of Serbia to the Commander of the Serbian contingent, Colonel Goran Radosavljević who said that the flag of our country would fly in the Central African Republic to the honour and pride of the Republic of Serbia and its armed forces.

 

Addressing the gathered reporters, Minister Vulin evaluated that the Serbian Armed Forces made great efforts in peacekeeping missions worldwide to show the value of our armed forces and the peace-loving policy of our country. He added that all our members were evaluated with highest marks and they are indeed spoken and thought of as people who represented our country in a highly dignified way.

 

- The Serbian Armed Forces just like the Government of the Republic of Serbia will continue the policy of participating in peacekeeping missions, particularly in ones that are highly demanding and very complex, to which much more developed and far richer armed forces and states rarely go. This time, we speak about the peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic, whose continuation is vital, regardless of it being considered as one of the most difficult peacekeeping missions in the world. We are proud of our girls and boys, we are proud of each our member, of exceptional results that they achieve and that is something that the entire international community and the UN highly appreciate – the minister of defence underlined reminding that the Serbian Armed Forces at that moment participated in 10 peacekeeping missions, six of them being under the UN auspices, and four being led by the EU.

 

Also, Minister Vulin noted that we would continue such policy and we would not withdraw from peacekeeping missions, because we were dedicated to preserving the peace in the world, because the Serbs know the best how precious the peace is and how difficult it is to keep it.

 

Asked to respond when our country will be able to independently deploy a contingent in some of the missions, minister Vulin pointed out that we were capable of that, but that it was also a political issue, and subject to an invitation for us to do it.