Under the Shade of High Mountains
Szöveg: hungariandefence.com | 2011. január 13. 11:18The latest release of Zrínyi Média, “Under the Shade of High Mountains – Hungarian Peacekeepers in Kosovo” is now available on our website. The film introduces the role of the Hungarian contingent in the ongoing NATO-led peacekeeping operation in Europe’s youngest state, where ethnic tensions between Albanians and Serbs are still running high.
Kosovo – a country in the Balkans that declared independence in 2008 – has a mixed population of which the majority are ethnic Albanians. When its autonomy was removed in 1998, open conflict broke out between the Serbian military and the Kosovan Albanian force which resulted in an Serbian ethnic cleansing campaign and a flood of hundreds of thousands of refugees. Concerned about the escalating conflict and its humanitarian consequences, the UN Security Council decided to establish international security presence in the country.
NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) has been leading a peace support operation in Kosovo in support of wider international efforts to build peace and stability in the area. After 77 days of air strikes against Serbia in March 1999, the first KFOR elements deployed in the country in June the same year.
Hungarian peacekeepers have been present in Kosovo since 1999. The Hungarian KFOR contingent has complex duties: it sends out patrols and operates checkpoints in areas of high ethnic tension, conducts activities in the field of civil-military cooperation, implements development projects in the country and protects key facilities.
