Fifty Years in the Service of Peace
Szöveg: M.Sz. | 2014. július 8. 11:18216 peacekeepers, among them 18 Hungarians received the UN Peacekeeping Medal in Cyprus on June 26. This event was equally significant for the Hungarian contingent serving on the island and the UNFICYP mission, because the medal parade was coupled with a ceremony, where the participants commemorated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.
In 1964, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 186, establishing the UNFICYP peacekeeping mission, in which soldiers from a total of 32 nations have served so far. The Hungarian troops have been performing peacekeeping tasks on the island for 21 years now.
The ceremony was held outside the terminal of the old Nicosia airport and attended by Lisa Buttenheim, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Cyprus and Head of Mission, UNFICYP Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Chao Liu, Hervé Ladsous, UN Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, Balázs Botos, Hungary’s ambassador to Cyprus and Maj.-Gen. Sándor Fucsku, Commander, HDF Joint Force Command. The event was graced with the presence of the military band of the Irish Guards on the island, which played the entry music and ceremonial marches of all nations present, and gave a 15-minute “lawn show" performance during the ceremony.
The “Peacekeeping" bronze medal was first presented to Maj.-Gen. Chao Liu, who will hand over his responsibilities as force commander this August, after more than three years of service. In what followed, the Head of Mission, the Force Commander and the national representatives pinned the medals on each soldier’s uniform. The qualification period for the medal is minimum 90 days of duty.
The soldier received the decorations from Balázs Botos, and from Lt.-Col. Márton Szász, contingent commander.
At the end of the ceremony, the participants stood to attention, observing a moment of silence and laid wreaths in memory of those 184 peacekeepers who had lost their lives over the past 50 years in the service of peace.
During his three-day program, Maj.-Gen. Sándor Fucsku, the representative of the Hungarian Defence Forces at the event, paid an official visit to Maj.-Gen. Chao Liu and to Ambassador Balázs Botos. At both meetings, the hosts praised the Hungarian soldiers’ high standards and thanked Hungary for its contribution to peacekeeping in Cyprus.
Afterwards, the Commander of the HDF Joint Force Command inspected the Hungarian troops’ billeting areas and service conditions, and held staff meetings where he briefed the peacekeepers on the current issues of the Hungarian Defence Forces and answered questions from them.
Photo: UNFICYP HUNCON
