Becoming International Military Observers

The participants of the course first attended classroom lessons where they learned and brushed up the basics of the duties of UN military observers, such as monitoring, investigation, radio communications in English, stress management, negotiation techniques. Then they also had opportunity to practice the skills they acquired on the course in real-life circumstances during a situation training in the HDF PSTC.

The program continued in the area of Egerbakta-Felnémet, where the 20 foreign and nine Hungarian students formed four dismounted patrol teams to conduct a daylong field training event, which involved various unexpected situational tasks while they were covering a 20km distance. These included manning a checkpoint, gathering information from the local people, negotiating with the insurgents in the interest of crossing an illegally established checkpoint, and administering first aid to two seriously wounded persons.

Three foreign (Finnish, Austrian and Bosnian) instructors and three Hungarian “mentors" were observing the activities of the patrol teams. During the patrol task, they immediately gave after action reviews after each situation and signal, in order to point out what went wrong and what went well. The complex training event was useful in assessing the participants’ leadership and decision-making skills. At the same time, the students got to know their own strengths in the different situations and emergencies.

The two-day closing exercise of the IMOC course will start in Szolnok and its environs on 12th October.

Photo: HDF PSTC