Our Troops Are Ready to Deploy with Any Operation

The service members recently returned from Cyprus, the Sinai Peninsula, the Western Sahara
and Lebanon after completing their tours of duty with missions abroad. Maj.-Gen. László
Domján, the commander of the HDF Joint Force Command welcomed the homecoming
personnel in the community centre of the HDF 86th Szolnok Helicopter Base. In his speech,
he explained the reason why international military presence is needed in those areas of
operations.

Talking about Cyprus, the major-general told his audience that the UNFICYP is mandated
to monitor the opposing forces, to prevent the construction and reinforcement of military
fortifications as well as military diversionary and provocative offensive maneuvers, to detect
intruder aircraft in the airspace and to block activities violating the status quo. Altogether 31
service members have now returned home from the Hungarian contingent serving in Cyprus,
the general added.

Twenty personnel have returned home from the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO)
deployed in the Sinai Peninsula. The security of their duty station was gradually deteriorating
due to the developments of the “Arab Spring", so they had to hold their own under
increasingly difficult circumstances" – the commander of the HDF JFC said.

Two soldiers each have returned home after completing their tours of duty with the UN
mission in the Western Sahara (MINURSO) and the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon. The
Hungarian soldiers served as peacekeepers and advisors with the former mission and as
cartographers with the latter.

At the ceremony, it was stated that a number of service members were about to commence
their mission abroad. Hungarian troops are going to deploy to Congo, a country plagued with
bloody civil wars for decades. They will be working there to create stability by transforming
the reform of the defence sector within the mission of the European Union (EUSEC RD
Congo). Conducted in close cooperation with other members of the international community,
the objective of the mission is to support the Congolese leadership in reorganizing and
building up an army which can guarantee peace and undisturbed economic development.

Three Hungarian soldiers are preparing to deploy with the European Union Monitoring
Mission (EUMMG) in Georgia, where an armed conflict broke out in the summer of 2008,
after two autonomous regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia declared their independence. The
main tasks of the mission are to monitor the border guard and military law enforcement forces
as well as to supervise compliance with the terms of the agreement between the Georgian
Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defence.

The soldiers present at the event received the Service Medal for Peacekeeping.

Photos by the author