Then Suddenly A Shot Is Fired…

First only a few ’locals’ appear in front of the building: they ask money, food and water from those who live there. The people living in the house tell them that they don’t have food supplies and cannot give money, but all in vain, for the crowd gathering around the building doesn’t want to disperse. What is more, they are shouting louder and louder: the soldiers of foreign countries should go home immediately. ’Get out! Get out!’ – they are chanting, and the senior official living in the house says he believes they need help, and contacts the officer on duty of the nearby EUFOR battalion.

A few members of the military peacekeeping contingent of the European Union arrive to the building in a couple of minutes. Upon seeing the armed men, the locals draw back only for a minute, then continue the ‘siege’ with renewed strength. In the beginning they only try to overturn the ATVs of the soldiers, then they attack the servicemen as well. The squad retreats to the house, then it requests reinforcement from the battalion command.

Soon the commander tries to negotiate: the locals ask for water, food and money again. Then suddenly a shot is fired, and one of the civilians drops wounded in front of the house. His companions immediately run to him, try to dress his wound, and their rage is directed at the soldiers with all their might. The armed men tell them in vain: it wasn’t them who fired, the crowd is getting angrier and angrier, so they have to look for refuge in the house from the probable lynching.

This building, the so-called LOT – Liaison and Observer Team – house is where the members of the liaison and observer teams serving in the international forces live. Our task in case of an attack is to prepare the evacuation of those living here and to rescue them – says the commander of the sqad during the retreat, then excuses himself and reports the situation to the headquarters. The radio cracks, the reply arrives immediately: the quick response company (QRF) is already on its way, they should hang on somehow until the arrival of the reinforcement.

In the meantime a sniper who is hiding nearby wounds more locals, and what is more, one of them dies from his wounds. By this time the raving crowd demands bandages and a doctor from the soldiers. Of course, nobody knows who fired. The situation becomes more and more complicated…

Lorries arrive, but the locals make it difficult for the medical staff accompanying the QRF company to examine the wounded. Some of them even attack the medics but thanks to the assigned personnel – wearing protective gear and armed with shields and batons – they manage to look after the wounded and take them to the nearest hospital by ambulance.

But the tension between the civilians and the soldiers does not ease, it is almost tangible, moreover the hiding sniper fires another shot and the locals believe once again that the soldiers are firing at them. They lose their temper and the soldiers dressed in protective gear can disperse the crowd only with great difficulties. Bottles of water, smoke bombs, wooden sticks are pouring on them and there is also a barricade obstructing their way. The locals keep hitting and kicking them – wherever they can…

Fortunately, they manage to pick out the angriest people from the crowd and the others lose their courage soon, they disperse, and we hear the cries of ‘Go home!’ from further and further away. After the dispersal of the crowd the officials living in the LOT house can also be taken to a secure place. In the ‘battle’ that lasted only half an hour the company has carried out its task!

The company has done a good job – confirms Major Gyõzõ Preininger, the commander of the sixth rotation of the HDF EUFOR Contingent. For the above situation was one of the moves of the closing exercise of the Hungarian peacekeeping corps preparing for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main duty of the Hungarian soldiers is crowd management, the protection of LOT houses in theatres of operation, and in case it is necessary, to rescue the people who live there. But in addition to that, the members of the EUFOR contingent of the Hungarian Defence Forces may be assigned patrolling and various escort tasks – adds the senior officer, who is preparing for his second Balkans mission. A few years ago he has already spent six months in Kosovo as a member of the ninth rotation of the HDF Guard and Security Battalion.

The preparation of the Hungarian soldiers began on the last day of August, and by the end of the usual, three-stage training – between November 16-19 – the personnel will demonstate what they have learnt at a so-called closing exercise – says the commander of the contingent, who happens to be the deputy commander of the Logistics Battalion of the HDF 25th ’György Klapka’ Infantry Brigade of Tata.

I also learn that most of the troops are from the Tata brigade, but there are also a lot of soldiers from the HDF 37th ‘Ferenc Rákóczi II’ Engineering Battalion of Szentes, the 12th ‘Arrabona’ Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment of Gyõr, and the HDF 43rd ‘József Nagysándor’ Signal and Command Support Regiment. It is interesting – says Major Preininger – that only a quarter of the personnel have been to a mission so far, in other words, the majority of the team have not served abroad yet.

175 troops have completed the preparation that has taken almost three months, but only 145 of them can go to the theatre of operations. It will be decided soon, after the personal interviews, who can participate in the mission and who will be the member of the reserve team. According to the plans the personnel will travel to Sarajevo in January in two rotations, but before that there will be a farewell ceremony in Tata.

The Hungarian contingent will carry out its duties under the command of the Spanish-led international battalion stationed in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition to the Hungarians, the battalion also has a Polish, a Turkish, and a Spanish company. Maj. Preininger tells me in confidence: even though at the moment there are no conflicts between the three nationalities living in the country, the presence of the EUFOR troops is still needed.

Fortunately, the peacekeepers rarely have to be deployed in live situations, so for the most part of their service they attend courses that prepare them for their tasks. There are also regular crowd management trainings and various types of target practice.