From the 2nd to the 4th of May the EUFOR Operation Commander General Sir James Everard visited Bosnia and Herzegovina to see various elements of the EUFOR mission in the country. This was his second visit as the Operation Commander to this theatre, his first being when he took over the role with a ceremony in Camp Butmir at the end of March this year.
An Honor Guard welcomed General Everard at the EUFOR HQ
On the afternoon of the 2nd he was greeted on arrival by Commander EUFOR (COMEUFOR) Major General Anton Waldner and an Honour Guard outside the HQ Building in Camp Butmir, Sarajevo. After meeting key HQ personnel he had office calls with COMEUFOR and Commander NATO HQ Sarajevo, Brigadier General Giselle Wilz to discuss the situation in BiH from their perspective. He then took the opportunity to tour the HQ Building, visiting the various departments and receiving briefs from the branch chiefs on the work and challenges of their particular teams.
The second day started with a flight to Banja Luka where General Everard and Major General Waldner visited two of EUFOR’s Liaison and Observation Teams (LOTs) located in the city, one manned by Chilean soldiers and the other by Romanian.
General Everard explained that he was very keen to see the LOT Houses, of which there are 17 across the country, and that he was very impressed by the small teams living in the community, who are working very hard to understand exactly what’s going on. He stated that he had seen enough during his visit to convince him that they have a very good understanding of the local situations where they live.
The day finished with a tour of the ammunition storage site in Krupa where the General was welcomed by Major General Husein Tursunović, the Commander of the Support Command of the AFBiH. General Everard then received comprehensive briefings from Colonel Rusmir Mrković, PhD, the Commander of the Logistics Command and Colonel Martin Trachsler, EUFOR’s Special Ammunitions and Weapons Advisor (SAWAD), about the successes in that storage site.
On the third and last day the Operation Commander met with EUSR Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark and was introduced to the Heads of Mission (HoMs) meeting where he witnessed the presentation of the political report of the EU HoMs on the political situation in BiH.