Slowenien — Internationale Militäreinsätze — International Military Operations

Inter­na­tion­al Mil­i­tary Oper­a­tions of the SAF (Sloven­ian Armed Forces — Slowenis­che Streitkräfte)

The par­tic­i­pa­tion of the Sloven­ian Armed Forces in inter­na­tion­al oper­a­tions has grad­u­al­ly increased in accor­dance with the imple­men­ta­tion of defense reforms, secu­ri­ty sit­u­a­tion and nation­al inter­ests. Thus, in 2004, one rota­tion includ­ed more than 400 SAF Ser­vice mem­bers, and in 2005, it includ­ed as many as 247 ser­vice mem­bers. Since 1997, when SAF ser­vice mem­bers were first deployed to peace sup­port Oper­a­tions (one med­ical unit and four liai­son offi­cers to the human­i­tar­i­an oper­a­tion ALBA as part of inter­na­tion­al forces in Alba­nia), more than 1200 ser­vice mem­bers have par­tic­i­pat­ed in inter­na­tion­al Operations. 

SAF Ser­vice mem­bers par­tic­i­pate in NATO and EU-led inter­na­tion­al oper­a­tions and UN mis­sions. Dur­ing these mis­sions, SAF ser­vice mem­bers acquire lessons learned and gain cred­i­bil­i­ty, and Slove­nia gains a sol­id rep­u­ta­tion as a state active in the area of pro­vid­ing peace and sta­bil­i­ty. This also improved the inter­op­er­abil­i­ty and com­pa­ra­bil­i­ty with Allied mil­i­tary orga­ni­za­tions and, at the same time, it built an offi­cer struc­ture capa­ble of tak­ing over more respon­si­ble duties in inter­na­tion­al operations. 

SAF Mem­bers in peace oper­a­tions from 1997 through 2006
— num­ber of ser­vice mem­bers in one rotation

Alba­nia
From May to July 1997, 21 SAF ser­vice mem­bers par­tic­i­pat­ed in the OSCE-led peace sup­port oper­a­tion as part of ALBA units (Alba­nia Force), in the ROLE‑1 med­ical unit. ALBA was the first peace Oper­a­tion in which the Sloven­ian Armed Forces par­tic­i­pat­ed. Its role was med­ical pro­vi­sion for ser­vice mem­bers of inter­na­tion­al forces. The sec­ond peace sup­port oper­a­tion in Alba­nia, in which the SAF were involved from May to July 1999, was the NATO-led oper­a­tion Allied Har­bor. Twen­ty-six ser­vice mem­bers of the SAF par­tic­i­pat­ed in this oper­a­tion as part of AFOR (Alba­nia Force). They were assigned to the ROLE‑1 med­ical unit, which was tasked with the med­ical sup­ply for ser­vice mem­bers of inter­na­tion­al forces and refugees from Koso­vo and offi­cers for the co-oper­a­tion with civ­il organizations. 

Cyprus
In Sep­tem­ber 1997, the first group of SAF ser­vice mem­bers was deployed to the UNFICYP (Unit­ed Nations Peace keep­ing Force in Cyprus) oper­a­tion under the aus­pices of the UN. The first two con­tin­gents includ­ed a unit the size of a detach­ment (10 ser­vice mem­bers). In Sep­tem­ber 1998, the Sloven­ian con­tin­gent increased to a pla­toon (27 ser­vice mem­bers). It was tasked, in the frame­work of the tri­lat­er­al UNAHSB Bat­tal­ion (Unit­ed Nations Aus­tri­an — Hun­gar­i­an — Sloven­ian Bat­tal­ion) patrol, obser­va­tion and con­trol in the area of sep­a­ra­tion between the oppos­ing sides. This mis­sion, in which eight con­tin­gents were exchanged, end­ed in July 2001. 

Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina
Secure and sta­ble con­di­tions are para­mount for effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion of polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic reforms in all Balkan states. After the con­flict on the ter­ri­to­ry of Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina, the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty deployed NATO inter­na­tion­al forces to per­form mis­sions in the Joint Forge oper­a­tion. Inter­na­tion­al forces of IFOR and SFOR have achieved vis­i­ble results so far, and con­tributed a large share to the sta­bi­liza­tion of the sit­u­a­tion and enhance­ment of secu­ri­ty in this region through their pres­ence and oper­a­tion. NATO rep­re­sen­ta­tives decid­ed at the Istan­bul Sum­mit that the Joint Forge oper­a­tion would cease at the end of 2004. 

Thus, peace in Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina, since 2nd Decem­ber 2004, has been main­tained by ser­vice mem­bers of the Euro­pean Union. The EU took over the peace oper­a­tion in Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina from NATO and, hence, began the largest oper­a­tion of this type in its his­to­ry, oper­a­tion ALTHEA. The cur­rent secu­ri­ty sit­u­a­tion in Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina requires a new approach to solv­ing of prob­lems or to chang­ing of the strat­e­gy con­cept. There­fore, the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty con­sid­ers that Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina requires oth­er experts who will assist local orga­ni­za­tions in estab­lish­ing mil­i­tary, police and oth­er gov­ern­men­tal struc­tures, in addi­tion to EUFOR police forces. The EU will, there­fore, assign experts for dif­fer­ent areas of admin­is­tra­tion, polit­i­cal issues and of var­i­ous human­i­tar­i­an orga­ni­za­tions to the area of operation. 

The SAF Mil­i­tary Police par­tic­i­pat­ed in the NATO Joint Forge oper­a­tion in Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina from Feb­ru­ary 1999 to March 2005. Ini­tial­ly, one MP pla­toon (23 ser­vice mem­bers), three ser­vice mem­bers, con­duct­ing staff duties at the Multi­na­tion­al Spe­cial­ized Unit (MSU) Head­quar­ters and a ROLE‑1 med­ical pla­toon par­tic­i­pat­ed in this oper­a­tion. In Sep­tem­ber 2001, Slove­nia deployed an addi­tion­al MP pla­toon, so that 49 SAF MP ser­vice mem­bers par­tic­i­pat­ed in this oper­a­tion. The unit oper­at­ed in the frame­work of SFOR peace forces as part of MSU, which was in Decem­ber 2004, through the EU takeover of the mis­sion, reor­ga­nized it into an inte­grat­ed police unit (IPU). The most impor­tant assign­ments of the Mil­i­tary Police in this oper­a­tion are: col­lect­ing data, con­trol­ling and secur­ing some areas; search­ing and col­lect­ing ille­gal weapons, ammu­ni­tion and explo­sives; search­ing war crim­i­nals and hand­ing them over to courts; assist­ing and co-oper­at­ing with the local police and local author­i­ties in pre­vent­ing devi­a­tions; main­tain­ing pub­lic order and peace; pre­vent­ing mass riots; co-oper­at­ing with and assist­ing oth­er units on the entire ter­ri­to­ry of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

In Jan­u­ary 2003, a motor­ized com­pa­ny of 184 ser­vice mem­bers was assigned to the mis­sion. The com­pa­ny was moved from Doboj to Tuzla and oper­at­ed as part of a multi­na­tion­al com­bat group under Finnish command.

NATO led the peace oper­a­tion in Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina until the end of the war in 1995. How­ev­er, it nev­er com­plete­ly left Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina, since around 150 of NATO ser­vice mem­bers remained there to par­tic­i­pate in the search of the prin­ci­pal defen­dants of the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Tri­bunal indict­ed for war crimes com­mit­ted in for­mer Yugoslavia. 

From July 2001 to Jan­u­ary 2003 a SAF offi­cer was assigned to the UN Office of the High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Refugees. 

Koso­vo
The SAF took over its area of respon­si­bil­i­ty in the mis­sion for the first time on 25th Feb­ru­ary 2007, cov­er­ing the cen­tral area of west­ern Koso­vo. About 500 ser­vice mem­bers of the 10th Motor­ized Bat­tal­ion par­tic­i­pat­ed in this oper­a­tion. They oper­at­ed at the lev­el of bat­tal­ion that also includ­ed a com­pa­ny of the Hun­gar­i­an armed forces. Fur­ther­more, the Sloven­ian con­tin­gent was com­prised of 100 mem­bers of the Mil­i­tary Police, vet­eri­nar­i­an and med­ical groups, logis­tic units, heli­copter units, liai­son groups, an engi­neer detach­ment, a CIMIC group, a Nation­al Sup­port Ele­ment as well as offi­cers and NCOs that are assigned to the multi­na­tion­al KFOR head­quar­ters and to the Multi­na­tion­al Task Force (West) — MNTF (W). The MNTF (W) was com­mand­ed by an Ital­ian brigadier, whose deputy com­man­der was a Sloven­ian colonel. 

Afghanistan
The Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force (ISAF) car­ries out this oper­a­tion with an inter­na­tion­al UN man­date in com­pli­ance with UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil res­o­lu­tions no. 1386, 1413 and 1444. Forces under the aus­pices of NATO were estab­lished to assist Afghan author­i­ties in main­tain­ing secu­ri­ty with­in their ter­ri­to­ry of respon­si­bil­i­ty, to enable UN author­i­ties and per­son­nel to oper­ate in a safe envi­ron­ment and to form secu­ri­ty forces in Afghanistan. 

The main mis­sion of ISAF is to assist the Afghan author­i­ties in pro­vid­ing a secure envi­ron­ment in Kab­ul and its sur­round­ings. There­fore, it patrols, togeth­er with the local police, in 16 var­i­ous police dis­tricts in Kab­ul and its surroundings. 

From 2004 to 2005, ser­vice mem­bers of spe­cial forces and recon­nais­sance units of the motor­ized bat­tal­ion con­duct­ed recon­nais­sance tasks for the require­ments of the brigade and pro­vid­ed per­son­nel to car­ry out com­bat search and res­cue assign­ments tor ISAF ser­vice mem­bers. Since August 2005, a pla­toon of the motor­ized bat­tal­ion in Her­at con­ducts assign­ments relat­ed to secur­ing civil­ian and mil­i­tary units, which assist local author­i­ties of the Afghan province bear­ing the same name as its cap­i­tal, Her­at. Since mid-2004, a vet­eri­nary unit and a SAF fire fight­ing unit at the air­port have been deployed to Kabul. 

Mid­dle East — Syr­ia
The Sloven­ian Armed Forces start­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the mis­sion UNTSO (Unit­ed Nations Truce Super­vi­sion Organ­i­sa­tion) with two ser­vice mem­bers in 1998, and then with two ser­vice mem­bers from Sep­tem­ber 2002 to Sep­tem­ber 2003. They were main­ly tasked with peace main­te­nance and con­trol and oth­er adopt­ed agree­ments between both oppos­ing sides in the areas of Israel, Syr­ia and Lebanon. 

Pak­istan
On 8th Octo­ber 2005, Pak­istan was struck by a severe earth­quake which inflict­ed heavy casu­al­ties on the pop­u­la­tion and enor­mous dam­age to materiel. The inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty quick­ly respond­ed to this dis­as­ter and sup­plied human­i­tar­i­an relief to the earth­quake-affect­ed areas. On this occa­sion, the NATO Allied Com­mand Oper­a­tions addressed an appeal for par­tic­i­pa­tion in the inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an oper­a­tion to all mem­ber states. Based on the deci­sion of the RS Gov­ern­ment, the SAF joined the Alliance oper­a­tion and sent two ser­vice mem­bers to par­tic­i­pate in the human­i­tar­i­an mission. 

Iraq
SAF ser­vice mem­bers at the Al Rus­tamia base co-oper­at­ed with oth­er NATO mem­bers on train­ing Iraqi secu­ri­ty forces. The Train­ing Cen­tre (NMT‑I) is locat­ed at a for­mer air force base in south­west Bagh­dad. The NATO mis­sion is includ­ed in the train­ing, equip­ping and pro­vid­ing tech­ni­cal sup­port to Iraqi secu­ri­ty forces and defense insti­tu­tions. NATO offi­cers and NCOs are men­tors to mid­dle and high-rank­ing offi­cers and NCOs of Iraqi secu­ri­ty forces. The entire NATO NMT‑I mis­sion was estab­lished and con­firmed by the North-Atlantic Council. 

Text/Bild Quelle — text/image source:
Slowenis­ches Vertei­di­gungsmin­is­teri­um / Sloven­ian Min­istry of Defence (MOD):
Klad­nik, Tomaz: Sloven­ian Armed Forces in the ser­vice of Slove­nia; 2nd sup­ple­ment­ed edi­tion. Ljubl­jana, 2007, ISBN 978–961-6177–14‑6