The army corps general Marco Bertolini, commander of the Interoperable Summit Operations Command (COI), met today, in Kosovo, the soldiers of the Italian contingent employed in the NATO Kosovo Force mission (KFOR).
To receive it, in the headquarters of Pristina, the division general Guglielmo Luigi Miglietta who is in command of the 5000 men and women of 31 nations that make up KFOR from the 7 last August. General Miglietta and his staff explained to COMCOI the current operating situation.
General Bertolini expressed words of appreciation for the commitment of KFOR that contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability in Kosovo and in the Balkan area, an area that has always been an area of flows and migration between East and West.
The IOC commander, accompanied by General Miglietta, then joined Pec / Peja, home of the Multinational Battle Group West, based on 132th Carri Regiment and then visited the Carabinieri base of the Multinational Specialized Unit.
The Italian military, said General Bertolini, "knew how to gain the trust of all the people of Kosovo by acting with humanity, professionalism and courage".
"You represent a great country that expresses thousands of soldiers in the most troubled areas of the world, continued the commander of the IOC, your presence here is an example, especially today when Italy and Europe are faced with situations of crises that have never occurred before ”.
"Be aware of your role - the general concluded - and continue to work with the same passion as always".
Italy, with the over 550 soldiers belonging to the three Armed Forces and the Carabinieri, represents one of the main supporters of the mission in Kosovo, where it operates from the 1999 for the stabilization of this delicate area of the Balkans and from the 2013 maintains the leadership of the mission.
The Multinational Battle Group West, also composed of Slovenians, Austrians and Moldovans, operates in the western region of Kosovo and is also responsible for the protection of the Visoki - Decani Monastery, an important place of Orthodox worship entered into 2004 among the UNESCO protected sites. the only place in Kosovo where KFOR is still directly responsible for security.
The Multinational Specialized Unit is engaged among other things in the supervision of the bridge over the Ibar river that divides the city of Mitrovica, a symbolic place of an ethnic and social division not yet completely resolved.
