First Mission in Kosovo

Mónika Láda is familiar with the field of Public Affairs as she serves in a similar position in Hungary with the Hódmezővásárhely subunits of the HDF 5th “Bocskai István" Infantry Brigade. The lieutenant has recently been posted to the KFOR Camp Villaggio Italia in Pejë/Peč, at the foot of the hills in Western Kosovo. She chose Kosovo for her first six-month tour of duty abroad because the Hódmezővásárhely troops have been deploying with the NATO peacekeeping operation since 1999, the year KFOR was established. For this reason, she considered it virtually obvious that as an officer of the Hódmezővásárhely garrison, she too would be posted to the mission sooner or later. Mónika, who is a lawyer, arrived on August 10 at the Pejë/Peč camp near the Albanian and Montenegrin borders, and since then she has been responsible for Public Affairs and internal information.

The latter mainly involves informing soldiers and their families at home via a newsletter issued by the brigade Commanding General which provides relatives and families with news and information about Hungarian troops serving in KFOR (and the HUN PRT in Afghanistan). Since September 2010, the journal has been published monthly in a new format. Readers can also find interviews in the newsletter, and those who want to send personal messages to comrades or relatives can use a special column for this purpose. The other important responsibility of the Public Affairs Officer is to manage the public affairs of the contingent.

– With the help of the official website of the Ministry of Defence and the Hungarian Defence Forces, civilians and members of the armed forces can learn about the work of Hungarian troops serving in missions abroad – says Mónika. It should be added that the lieutenant maintains an excellent relationship with the local Hódmezővásárhely media, so those interested can find regular updates on the duties of the town’s service members in missions abroad on the websites of local papers. The Public Affairs Officer is also in contact with the local press working in

– The only difference between working at home and here is that in Kosovo we are in the KFOR area of operations, so in doing my job I have to pay attention to specific local features – says Mónika. She adds that although the official working hours in Camp Villaggio Italia are between 8.00 am and 7.00 pm from Monday to Saturday, in fact the troops are on a 24-hour duty in the theatre. On Sundays most of the personnel do some sports or learn languages. The commander of the contingent is running Italian and English language courses during the off-duty periods, which are very popular with many officers and NCOs since Italy is the lead nation at Camp Villaggio.