Deputy Police Director General Matjaž Šinkovec, on 9 April 2008, in the premises of the Interior Ministry in Ljubljana, received police officers departing for the EUPM mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the EULEX mission in Kosovo.

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The reception was also attended by Bojan Lunežnik, a member of the inter-ministerial working group for the implementation of the act on deployment to peacekeeping missions of international organisations and the president of the commission for the police, Danijel Žibret, the director of the Uniformed Police Administration at the General Police Administration, Aleksander Jevšek Msc. the director of the Criminal Police Administration at the General Police Administration, and Darko Lesjak, in charge of the mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, from the security planning and peacekeeping missions division of the Uniformed Police Administration at the General Police Administration.

skupnaBranislav Kanduti, a criminal police officer at the Police Administration Ljubljana is departing for the EUPM mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He has been employed in the police since 1994. He had already gained experience in peacekeeping missions, as he also served in the EUPM mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2004 and 2005. Kanduti will work as an adviser in the SIPA agency as of 11 April 2008.

Peter Varagič, an assistant commander at the Air Police Station Brnik, and Janez Gregorič, an assistant commander at the Police Station Škofja Loka are departing for the EULEX mission in Kosovo.

Peter Varagič has been employed in the police since 1992. He already gained experience in peacekeeping missions, as he also served in the UNMIK mission in Kosovo and the PROXIMA mission in Macedonia in 2005. In the EULEX mission in Kosovo, he will work as an adviser and deputy head of an international group of police officers at an airport in Priština as of 21 April 2008.

Janez Gregorič has been employed in the police since 1994. He does not have previous experience of peacekeeping missions. He will also serve as an adviser in the EULEX mission in Kosovo as of 21 April 2008.


EULEX Mission

Slovenia will deploy to the EU mission in Kosovo (EULEX) 15 police officers for a year. Their task will be chiefly to supervise, mentor and advise. Judges and prosecutors will also participate in the mission.

The main purpose of the police and civilian mission as part of the EU security and defence policy, which is also the biggest EU mission of the kind so far, is to help establish the rule of law and to assist the police and judiciary in Kosovo. Its task is also to deal with certain issues related to organised crime.

In addition to police officers, judges and prosecutors, the EU member states will also deploy to the mission customs officers, who will assist their colleagues from Kosovo.