__Kosovan Prime Minister Albin Kurti has spoken out in favour of strengthening SWISSCOY, the Swiss armed forces’ contingent in Kosovo. He says his country is not only dependent on a continuation of the mission, but also on the Swiss contribution growing.__
“More Swiss officers and soldiers are always very welcome in our country,” Kurti said in an interview with CH Media on Friday. Kosovo is “infinitely grateful to Switzerland for its commitment with SWISSCOY”, he continued.
In November the Swiss government announced that it wanted to extend the SWISSCOY mission in Kosovo by three years, until the end of 2026.
A week ago the Security Policy Committee of the Senate also spoke out in favour. It had also requested that the number of army personnel be increased by a maximum of 30 during a deployment.
Currently, the maximum number of SWISSCOY personnel is 195 members of the armed forces. Parliament must approve the deployment because it lasts longer than three weeks and involves more than 100 army personnel. The current mandate expires at the end of 2023.
Since 1999 the Swiss armed forces have been involved with SWISSCOY in the Kosovo peacekeeping mission KFOR (Kosovo Force), the multinational military formation set up in 1999 after the end of the Kosovo war under NATO leadership.
Swiss Soldiers are held in very high regard all over the world, I have multiple friends who were (one even currently is) on foreign deployment, both for KFOR and for UN missions. Both OSZE (~~who runs KFOR~~) as well as the UN frequently request more Swiss soldiers, the high quality of our training combined with our political neutrality makes us very attractive for these missions.
Who pays for Swiss soldiers in Kosovo…asking for a friend.
I was deployed twice to Kosovo with SWISSCOY and once to EUFOR in Bosnia & Herzegovina. The Swiss KFOR / EUFOR personell is highly regarded and delivers great work, mind you, if you haven’t been there and don’t know much about the conflcit it’s hard to understand why international troops are needed there.
But if you know more about the conflict or have been there then you know it. It’s good there are international troops, and even better there are Swiss.
Why? I was in those LMT (in Kosovo) and LOT in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Liaison and Monitoring / Obeservation Teams. Basically the eyes and ears of the mission, and yes, all I tell here I am free to say.
Within these teams you get to meet a lot of people, monitor events etc. so you get a deep insight on what is happening, and thats exactly why these teams are there.
Now, the issues there are deeply ethnically rooted, so as example (and mind you – this is only an example and counts for KFOR and EUFOR), you can put in a Turkish team into a Kosovo Albanian region, but not in a Kosov Serbian, you can put in Slovenes in a Kosovo Serbian territory in theory but not in a Kosovo Albanian. In here comes the strenght of the Swiss as example, us you can put in everywhere.
So I’m very glad Switzerland is still part of the KFOR by providing the SWISSCOY.
​
Edit: Also one of the main arguments I’ve heard against the mission (friends and family, strangers etc.) is: It’s not our problem – we shouldn’t take care of it. Thats the thing tho, with that mindset it will become our issue.. There are things more important than a few CHF.
Very nice to see some recognition for the excellent work that is being done here. This is a good use of the armed forces.
Njieri
No no no, Swisscoy is an abomination. We need to get out of there
We need to get out of there. Why are we risking swiss soldiers life for a random country? They have caused us enough problems here.
8 comments
__Kosovan Prime Minister Albin Kurti has spoken out in favour of strengthening SWISSCOY, the Swiss armed forces’ contingent in Kosovo. He says his country is not only dependent on a continuation of the mission, but also on the Swiss contribution growing.__
“More Swiss officers and soldiers are always very welcome in our country,” Kurti said in an interview with CH Media on Friday. Kosovo is “infinitely grateful to Switzerland for its commitment with SWISSCOY”, he continued.
In November the Swiss government announced that it wanted to extend the SWISSCOY mission in Kosovo by three years, until the end of 2026.
A week ago the Security Policy Committee of the Senate also spoke out in favour. It had also requested that the number of army personnel be increased by a maximum of 30 during a deployment.
Currently, the maximum number of SWISSCOY personnel is 195 members of the armed forces. Parliament must approve the deployment because it lasts longer than three weeks and involves more than 100 army personnel. The current mandate expires at the end of 2023.
Since 1999 the Swiss armed forces have been involved with SWISSCOY in the Kosovo peacekeeping mission KFOR (Kosovo Force), the multinational military formation set up in 1999 after the end of the Kosovo war under NATO leadership.
Swiss Soldiers are held in very high regard all over the world, I have multiple friends who were (one even currently is) on foreign deployment, both for KFOR and for UN missions. Both OSZE (~~who runs KFOR~~) as well as the UN frequently request more Swiss soldiers, the high quality of our training combined with our political neutrality makes us very attractive for these missions.
Who pays for Swiss soldiers in Kosovo…asking for a friend.
I was deployed twice to Kosovo with SWISSCOY and once to EUFOR in Bosnia & Herzegovina. The Swiss KFOR / EUFOR personell is highly regarded and delivers great work, mind you, if you haven’t been there and don’t know much about the conflcit it’s hard to understand why international troops are needed there.
But if you know more about the conflict or have been there then you know it. It’s good there are international troops, and even better there are Swiss.
Why? I was in those LMT (in Kosovo) and LOT in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Liaison and Monitoring / Obeservation Teams. Basically the eyes and ears of the mission, and yes, all I tell here I am free to say.
Within these teams you get to meet a lot of people, monitor events etc. so you get a deep insight on what is happening, and thats exactly why these teams are there.
Now, the issues there are deeply ethnically rooted, so as example (and mind you – this is only an example and counts for KFOR and EUFOR), you can put in a Turkish team into a Kosovo Albanian region, but not in a Kosov Serbian, you can put in Slovenes in a Kosovo Serbian territory in theory but not in a Kosovo Albanian. In here comes the strenght of the Swiss as example, us you can put in everywhere.
So I’m very glad Switzerland is still part of the KFOR by providing the SWISSCOY.
​
Edit: Also one of the main arguments I’ve heard against the mission (friends and family, strangers etc.) is: It’s not our problem – we shouldn’t take care of it. Thats the thing tho, with that mindset it will become our issue.. There are things more important than a few CHF.
Very nice to see some recognition for the excellent work that is being done here. This is a good use of the armed forces.
Njieri
No no no, Swisscoy is an abomination. We need to get out of there
We need to get out of there. Why are we risking swiss soldiers life for a random country? They have caused us enough problems here.