The Armed Forces Day in Belgrade
Today we are hosting a blog by Colonel Nigel Fenn, the Defence Attache of the British Embassy in Belgrade, written on the occasion of the first UK Armed Forces Day.
The British Embassy in Belgrade marked the first United Kingdom's Armed Forces Day by raising a commemorative flag outside the Embassy on Thursday, 25 June. Britain's Armed Forces day will take place on Saturday 27th June and will be marked by events all over the UK. The commemorative flag will fly at councils, businesses and homes as well as UK Armed Forces bases all over the world. In recognition of this event the British Embassy in Belgrade is proud to support the event.
Armed Forces Day was created as part of the British Government's initiative to recognise better the contribution made to society by all those who serve and have served in the British Armed Forces. It is part of a wider campaign to raise public awareness, understanding and support for the Armed Forces.
The title “Armed Forces Day” has been chosen to reflect the wider Armed Forces Family of serving personnel (both regular and reserve), veterans and the cadet forces. This sense of inclusiveness is reflected in the strap line for the Day: “Honouring Britain’s Armed Forces, past, present and future”. However, this does not mean that we do not also honour those allies that have fought alongside British Forces in the past; Serbia and the UK have a long tradition for cooperation through two world wars and I hope that we can continue to cooperate for many years to come.
This Armed Forces Day allows us to remember and honour not only those in past but the present and equally the future. We must all work together towards a more secure and peaceful future.
Posted at 09:33 27 June 2009 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[1]
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Today this blog will host Nick Groves, Head of Commercial Section of the Embassy in Belgrade
"One of the things that I enjoy about this job is that, occasionally, I get to do something that has nothing to do with politics, business or the Embassy's targets and objectives. A great example of this happened on Monday during a visit to Nis. The main purpose of my visit was a series of meetings to talk about prospects for British investment in the city. But, apart from the business side of things, I also had the chance to visit the Malisic family. They had written to the Embassy some months before, after seeing me on TV saying that I was a fan of Tottenham Hotspur - The Pride of North London. The Malisic family wrote to say that they too were Spurs fans, and that I would be welcome to drop by sometime to talk about the team.
Unknown to them, the Embassy got in touch with Tottenham Hotspur, who sent a pennant signed by members of the squad. It was great to see the surprise when I presented this to the family, and to realise that a small effort can bring such happiness. I think that the Malisic home is a corner of Serbia that will be forever lilywhite. Come On You Spurs!"
Posted at 15:02 18 December 2008 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[2]
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Friday 5 December: Another trip, another project - this time to attend the passing-out parade at the Police Basic Training Centre in Sremska Kamenica.
The British Council, with Embassy funding, have been working with the Interior Ministry to encourage candidates from Serbia's many different national communities to put themselves forward for the police entrance exam, and to support them through the application process. We have worked with the Centre to produce advertisements and materials in Albanian, Hungarian, Romanian, Roma, Ruthenian, Slovak, Bulgarian and Croatian, as well as in Serbian.
It seems to be working - the proportion of applications from minority community members is up this year. The thinking behind it all is simple - in a democratic society, effective policing needs the consent and cooperation of the whole community, and to get that you have to have good representation of all groups.
It's a lesson we have learned in the UK. We haven't achieved complete success there yet, by any means, but we know what needs to be done and we're sharing that experience now here in Serbia.
The ceremony itself was really uplifting, with proud parents, brothers and sisters crowding around, a band playing, marches and folk dancing, and all the newly-graduated cadets throwing their hats into the air. I wonder if they ever get the right ones back? Then at the end I was given a good-bye gift of a picture of a policeman, drawn by a 6-year old Art Workshop pupil - here it is
and it's now on our Embassy wall!
Posted at 19:56 08 December 2008 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[0]
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It's been a busy period, and so it is a good time to launch a blog!
The biggest item on my recent agenda has been the process of getting agreement to the launch of EULEX (the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo) throughout Kosovo.
On the one hand, Belgrade wanted EULEX to have UN Security Council approval, and for it to be status-neutral, with no link to the plan of the UN Status Envoy, President Ahtisaari. On the other, Pristina were insistent that EULEX should be based firmly on its Constitution. We got agreement in the end, building on the fact that the EU as an organisation has no position on Kosovo status, since not all member states have recognised Kosovo's independence.
If the EU has no position, the presence of an EU Mission, which all its members - recognisers and non-recognisers alike - have authorised, cannot confer status either way. And with Security Council approval for the UN Secretary General's report, the mission is launched.
Its task is important - to improve the standard of law and order throughout Kosovo. Once it gets started we hope that even those who were opposed to it will come to see that it is in the interests of all communities.
Apart from that I have been out of the office a lot, mainly in connection with a series of projects we have been working on here:
• the 5th anniversary celebration of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights
• a ceremony to celebrate the successful conclusion of a project
On the same evening as the press conference I was in Novi Sad for the opening of a British section in the city library. My wife read a story in English to some 40 children of around 8 to 10 years old. They all seemed to enjoy the story, and the cakes she brought with her. As always I am left enormously impressed with the standard of spoken English among people here, including the very young. I then went on to help the British Council launch their portfolio of booklets in Serbian, aimed at helping people to understand how to help disabled people take their proper place in society. It's a big and important area; every society defines itself by how it treats its weakest members. We have had some really good cooperation with local organisations here in Serbia; there is some good progress.
That's it for the moment - and in future I shall try to blog more often, and to make my entries shorter. But if you want to comment on any of this, or on anyting else to do with the United Kingdom's work here, just add your comments! There’s more about me on my about page.
Posted at 13:21 05 December 2008 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[17]
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