Minister of Defence of the Hungarian Republic and Slovak Minister of Defence Lubomir Galko paid tribute to the memory of the victims crashed in Hejce five years ago. “The soldiers have made every effort to establish peace in a broken, war-ridden country,” Dr Csaba Hende said.

Hejce has been remembered for the tragedy of a Slovak AN-24 military aircraft which crashed on January 19, 2006.
The airplane was carrying Slovak peacekeeping troops who had finished a six-month tour of duty in KFOR mission in Kosovo. Forty-two people were killed in the crash.
”January 19 is the day of respect and tribute,” Lubomir Galco said in his speech. The Slovak Minister of Defence said: the Slovak peacekeepers were a few minutes and a few kilometres away from completing their KFOR mission when the plane crashed. Minister of Defence of the Slovak Republic emphasized that the victims of the tragedy had taken their oath to protect human values and peace. They had done their best to bring peace for the citizens of Kosovo.
“These men and women have accomplished the greatest thing ever, serving their homeland Slovakia and our common cause, the Alliance. The troops have made every effort to establish peace in a broken, war-ridden country,” Minister of Defence of the Hungarian Republic Dr Csaba Hende said.
On 19 January 2011, the fifth anniversary of the crash was commemorated by the victims’ relatives, comrades, the Slovak and Hungarian militaries, emergency workers and locals. The participants of the commemoration ceremony laid their wreaths and flowers and lit candles at the crash site.

Translated by Dóra Darnyik