Peace Support Operations Training Centre Opens in BiH

21/04/2005

A new Peace Support Operations Training Centre opened this month at Camp Butmir in Sarajevo. It is the first international defence-related institution in Bosnia and Herzegovina in which members of the country's armed forces work shoulder to shoulder with their colleagues from partner nations.

By Antonio Prlenda for Southeast European Times in Sarajevo – 21/04/05

A BiH military officer in front of the PSOTC. [Antonio Prlenda]

With help of the UK and 11 donor countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) officially opened the international Peace Support Operations Training Centre (PSOTC) on 14 April at Camp Butmir in Sarajevo.

The centre, headed by Danish Army Brigadier General Henning Broechmann-Larsen, will deliver world-class peace support operations training for BiH and foreign officers. The aim of the centre is to instil future leaders with leadership skills and a military ethos based on internationally accepted peace support operations doctrine.

The first course was held between 7 February and 1 April, and was attended by 32 officers from BiH as well as six from partner countries.

"It is the first international defence-related institution in BiH in which members of the BiH Armed Forces work shoulder to shoulder with their colleagues from the partner nations," said BiH Defence Minister Nikola Radovanovic at the opening ceremony. "Training that PSOTC offers enable us to improve, both in quantity and quality, the contribution of BiH to international peace and stability, which is one of the three main missions of the armed forces."

BiH recently deployed its 5th rotation of nine military observers in the UN peace support operation in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and five military observers in the 3rd rotation to the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, while preparing the explosive ordnance disposal unit to be deployed in Iraq.

"These activities show that BiH has been increasingly taking its responsibilities as a member of the international community," said Radovanovic.

The PSOTC will provide three eight-week training courses a year for lieutenants, captains and some junior majors. There will be up to 40 students per course, of which approximately 25 per cent will be international students. The principal course is the Peace Support Operations (PSO) Staff Course. Other courses will be developed, such as specialist seminars for senior officers and new courses and seminars that are of benefit to the BiH Armed Forces or other parts of the BiH security sector. Directing staff come from partner nations, while five military officers are drawn from BiH.

"We would like to see this centre mature into a centre that also trains officers from the neighbouring countries in peace support operations," said Broechmann-Larsen. "In that respect, I am very pleased that Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia all have accepted the invitation to send young officers to be trained in PSO here."

The estimated construction cost of the PSOTC is 3m euros. The UK led the project, with donor support from Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States. In several years, the BiH Armed Forces will gradually assume the lead role in directing the PSOTC.