Eighth KFOR Rotation Starts Service

The ceremony was preceded by close to three weeks of hard work. Having arrived in the area
of operations, the eighth rotation – which has mainly been drawn from the personnel of the
HDF 5th “Bocskai István" Infantry Brigade – started the handover-takeover of material stocks
and positions in cooperation with the seventh rotation. On the day after the redeployment,
the maneuver company of the contingent immediately started to carry out its training tasks:
the soldiers participated in in-theatre awareness practices as well as squad-, platoon- and
company-level Crowd Riot Control (CRC) training sessions.

Also in attendance at the ceremony were KFOR Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Steven Duff, István
Sipos, the deputy chief of mission at the Hungarian Embassy, Imre Vékás-Kovács, the first
secretary from the Hungarian Embassy, Lt.-Col. Zsolt Sipos, the Hungarian representative
of EULEX, Lt.-Col. José Talambas, the commander of the KTM battalion, Col. József
Miskolczi, Hungarian senior national representative, Lt.-Col. Augusto Sepúlveda, Portuguese
senior national representative and Director of Staff Lt.-Col. József Kokics.

On February 23, the Hungarians completed a validation exercise together with the Portuguese
contingent. This exercise involved riot control, removal of road blocks and providing force
protection for Swiss EOD technicians destroying a roadside bomb. The “rioters" were
throwing stones at the company and attacked it with sticks, then started using Molotov
cocktails to make it more difficult for the peacekeepers to take action.

Lt.-Col. José Talambas, the commander of the KFOR Tactical Reserve Manoeuver Battalion
(KTM) assessed the exercise as successful, thus the infantry company can commence training
for the actual task execution as part of the Portuguese–Hungarian battalion. Its primary tasks
are to participate in CRC operations, to conduct presence patrols and to set up and operate
checkpoints.