Memorial to the Slovak soldiers erected in Pristina

21.01.2016 / 14:56 | Aktualizováno: 04.02.2016 / 13:50

A memorial to the Slovak soldiers who died in an air accident on their flight from a deployment mission in Kosovo was unveiled by Miroslav Lajčák, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, on January 19, 2016 in Pristina on the day of the tenth anniversary of the tragedy. “Even though they left this world too early, they managed to deliver their brave assistance to Kosovo in its effort to become a better and safer place to live for all,” reminded Minister Lajčák during the commemoration ceremony in Kosovo’s capital city.

Erecting the memorial was initiated by Kosovo’s President Atifete Jahjaga who opened the event in the City Park in Pristina. Then President Jahjaga and Minister Lajčák jointly laid wreathes at the memorial board with a bilingual Slovak-Albanian inscription to the memory of 42 Slovak soldiers whose plane crashed near the Hungarian village of Hejce.
“We appreciate that the people of Kosovo have not forgotten the sad destiny of our soldiers and what they did when they were serving under the KFOR mission to contribute to building peace and stability in all of this region,” stated Minister Lajčák in his remembrance address.

(Adopted from Slovak MFA’s web site)