Austria has been heavily involved in the international EUFOR mission in Bosnia for years. In the course of the current flood disaster, however, the Austrian soldiers are not only dealing with security issues, but also with extensive evacuation and supply tasks.
Clearing mines, training security forces and monitoring the fragile peace between the various ethnic groups and conflict parties. These are the core tasks of the Austrian EUFOR soldiers in a nutshell. Normally, because these days the soldiers are busy with far more tasks: After large parts of the operational area in Bosnia were flooded by a devastating flood and hundreds of torrents and mudslides broke their way through, the Austrian soldiers have taken on the role of disaster relief workers. They are transporting food to cut-off areas and evacuating people who have become homeless and injured. All of this is coordinated in Camp Butmir, the military base of the EUFOR troops. The camp is located south of Sarajevo on the edge of the airport and is the temporary home for most of the more than three hundred Austrian soldiers currently stationed in Bosnia as part of EUFOR ALTHEA. This includes those of Major Udo Koller, Commander of the EUFOR Heli Detachment, which is carrying out EUFOR missions with its three Alouette IIIs and two Black Gawk S70s from the Austrian Armed Forces and is currently fully engaged in flood operations. “This always includes emergency missions, such as on 16 May, when we received an urgent helicopter request from the Joint Operations Center, the EUFOR situation center,” says Major Koller in an interview with Militär Aktuell. “We were to fly as quickly as possible to the north of Zenica, where some mountain villages had been cut off from the environment. As nothing more precise was known, we took an emergency doctor from AUTCON, the Austrian contingent on duty with EUFOR, with us for safety reasons. And that was – as it turned out on the ground – a good decision.” On the way north, the helicopter flew over a flooded and destroyed landscape, but also over the former line of confrontation, which is still monitored by EUFOR today – although peace has prevailed since 1995. The journey continued deep into the Bosna Valley. “And that’s where we discovered the people,” says Koller. “Fearing the mudslides, they fled to the hilltops and marked out landing sites, even though many of them were completely frozen through. There were also many injured people, children and old people in wheelchairs. After we had requested reinforcements by radio and another Alouette MEDEVAC (emergency medical helicopter) with an Austrian emergency doctor on board and a Black Hawk had arrived, we started the evacuation. A local chief and a doctor decided who would go first and who would have to wait. The injured, sick, pregnant women, old people and children were taken in this order.”
The Austrian helicopters transported the evacuees to Zenica, where the stadium was quickly converted into a landing site and the rescue services, fire department and volunteers continued to look after the people. In the meantime, the helicopters have already made their way back to transport more people. “On this day alone, almost 300 people were evacuated and the work continued on the following days: evacuating people from the affected area and flying in aid material,” says Major Koller. “In my opinion, the perfect teamwork of our people in the Helicopter Detachment was crucial for the smooth operation. We could not have been successful without the excellent work of the technicians, the perfect coordination at AIR OPS headquarters and the support of the doctors, air traffic control and flight rescuers. Praise is also due to the civilian organization in Zenica and, of course, the discipline of those involved.” A few days later, a reconnaissance detachment from AFDRU, the military disaster relief unit of the Austrian Armed Forces, arrives in Butmir and is hosted by the Austrian national element, the AUTNE. The commando is to investigate the use of water treatment plants. The floods have contaminated numerous wells and drinking water reserves with chemicals, dirt, faeces, oil and fuel – so there is an urgent need for fresh drinking water. The treated water can then be distributed using three trucks, and the Austrian soldiers are also helping to clean and disinfect wells in order to slowly make them usable again. But this is still a long way off at this stage, as the exploration is still ongoing. In the meantime, the Austrian Intermediate Reserve Company, the company-sized intervention reserve for EUFOR, is also arriving on site. It comes from Straß in Styria and has been reinforced with soldiers from other federal states. Over the next few months, they will be guarding the camp, helping to repair the damage caused by the flood disaster and contributing to security in the country. Back to AFDRU, whose main contingent arrives in the Orasje region on the same day. The drinking water system is quickly set up there. Water can be treated and distributed the very next day. Staff sergeant Erden Gynaydin: “We can produce up to 240 cubic meters of water a day with the plant and thus supply 50,000 people.” Enough to guarantee a decent basic supply and thus limit the outbreak of epidemics and the spread of disease as far as possible. And that is ultimately what is currently most important here. Even if, at the same time, work is already continuing on defusing the many mines that were scattered around the country as a result of the floods and are still live, and at the same time the day-to-day security and safety tasks must not be neglected. But more on that another time.
