Peacekeeping in Bosnia
December 5, 2007
In an official ceremony on Tuesday, Dec. 4, German Rear Admiral Hans-Jochen Witthauer, head of the EUFOR mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina since December 2006, passed the baton to Major General Ignacio Martin Villalain of Spain.
"There is still more work to be done," said Villalain following the ceremony. "EUFOR will retain a presence across the country. It will keep a capacity to rapidly deploy where needed and to respond promptly to any potential threat to the safe and secure environment."
Miroslav Lajcak, top international envoy in Bosnia and acting EU special representative, also confirmed that "the EU remains committed to supporting Bosnia" and doesn't have plans to withdraw from the former Yugoslav state.
Coinciding with the change of command, EUFOR also on Tuesday officially handed over the Rajlovac military base near Sarajevo to the 8,000-strong Bosnia-Herzegovinian army. The camp had been used by international forces since 1995.
Minister: Kosovo won't impact Bosnian security
German Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung was scheduled to attend the event in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, but his plane was rerouted due to bad weather.
He missed the ceremony, but used the unexpected stop to meet with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Spain's Defense Minister Jose Antonio Alonso Suraez, who also had to make unplanned landings in Split on the Croatian coast.
Jung had said earlier Tuesday that a withdrawal of EUFOR troops from Bosnia-Herzegovina was dependent on developments in Kosovo.
Tensions over the future status of the nearby Serbian province wouldn't worsen the security situation in the area, added Jung. After a series of failed attempts to negotiation a solution between Serbian and Kosovar leaders, a troika of diplomatic envoys from the US, EU and Russia has until Dec. 10 to present its report the UN Security Council.
Germany strongly represented in EUFOR
In 2004, the European Union took over peacekeeping duties from NATO, which had had a military presence in the region since the end of the Bosnian War in 1995.
EUFOR, which represents 28 countries, reduced its capacity to 2,500 from 6,000 at the beginning of 2007 due to an improved security situation. Germany has one of the largest contingents with 340 troops.
Over the 12 years that Germany has been involved in Bosnia-Herzegovina, first as part of NATO then as a member of the EU mission, some 76,000 German soldiers have served there. The German defense ministry estimates that its involvement has cost a total of 1.7 billion euros ($2.5 billion).