TBILISI. Nov 28 (Interfax-AVN) - A company of Georgian servicemen will return home on Saturday after a six-month long peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, Nino Sturua, press secretary of the Georgian defense minister, told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"The Vaziani military base will host the welcoming ceremony for peacekeepers on Saturday. Georgian Defense Minister David Tevzadze will attend the event," Sturua said.
Brigadier General Dmitry Lezhava, chief of the Defense Ministry's HR Directorate, told reporters that the peacekeeping unit will be included in the Georgian battalion of the Mixed Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone upon the return from the Balkans.
The next shift of peacekeepers totaling 150 servicemen has got down to peacekeeping duties in Kosovo. The unit got additional training in Germany starting from mid-October, Lezhava said.
Georgian peacekeepers have been in Kosovo since 1999. Georgia originally maintained a platoon within a Turkish unit. In May 2003, the contingent was expanded to a company with the Bundeswehr's support. The company is now organic of the German brigade.
As many as 154 Georgian soldiers are in Kosovo at the moment. 133 of them are professional privates, 19 are officers, and two are petty officers. Their salary is EUR330 per month, and another USD560 per month are accumulated at their accounts back in Georgia.
After the second peacekeeping company left for Kosovo, establishment of the third one began. The three companies will subsequently be included in the special peacekeeping battalion that will always be ready for leaving for any place in the world where Georgia decides to take part in peacekeeping operations.
Kosovo was the first trouble spot where Georgian peacekeepers were dispatched. In August this year, Georgia joined the peacekeeping operation in Iraq.