New commander takes office at NATO headquarters in Sarajevo

Brigadier General Merle D. Hart took over as commander of the NATO headquarters in Sarajevo from Walter T. Lord during a ceremony at Butmir Camp on Monday. Hart, a member of the U.S. Air Force, said he would focus on solving the issue of military property during his term. "We will support solving of the issue of surplus weapons and reform of logistic and procurement sector," he said. Departing Commander Lord, for his part, emphasized that relations between NATO and the European Union Force (EUFOR) had improved in Sarajevo in the past year. "We all worked together to help Bosnia and Herzegovina face the difficult challenges on its path to Euro-Atlantic integration. There are still great challenges ahead," he said. Member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency Zeljko Komsic and Zivko Budimir, President of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, were among the high officials present at the ceremony. It has has been almost 13 years since NATO first deployed 60,000 soldiers to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the immediate aftermath of the war in the 1990s. NATO's headquarter in Sarajevo came into being with a much smaller presence after a stabilization force ended in December 2005 with a mandate that was specifically focused on defence reform -- an essential prerequisite for Bosnia and Herzegovina's integration into European and international institutions.