Major General Robert Brieger refers to the regrettable incident in Banja Luka n 11th November 2012 involving two Austrian soldiers.
In close coordination with the Austrian authorities, it has been decided to end their deployment ahead of their planned rotation. It should be noted that this decision is without prejudice to any future decisions on that matter.
The reason for their early redeployment is due to the media reactions which have made any further appointment within EUFOR for these soldiers impracticable and their retention would be a further distraction to our important mission in BiH.
All future investigations will now be in the hands of independent Austrian judicial authorities. It can be expected that these authorities will contact the relevant BiH institutions if further support is required.
International law defines the respective procedures for such cooperation.
The same legal framework defines possible future requests from BiH institutions to the responsible Austrian authorities on this issue.
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