Majorcan troops to serve in Bosnia in May

The 47th light infantry regiment of Palma paid tribute to the patron of Infantry, the Immaculate Conception, in a brief ceremony at the General Asensio barracks of Palma yesterday. The ceremony has been held every year since 1892 but this was the first time that the soldiers taking part were professionals. During his speech, colonel in chief Miguel Montojo announced that next May, 35 men of the Filipinas battalion of Majorca will leave for Bosnia Herzegovina to collaborate with the multi-national forces there, as the Mahon battalion has done earlier. Colonel Montojo also said in his speech that the change from an army of conscripts to a professional armed forces had been carried out in an “excessively short period of time compared to other countries which accepted this new concept of defence earlier, particularly in the Western block.” He added that this had led to serious difficulties on a regional as well as a national level. The celebration was presided by the commander general and general in chief of the military area of the Balearics, Tomas Formentin, and attended by representatives of all branches of the Armed Forces, the police and civil society. Fernando Pozuelos represented the Balearic government and also present were Angel Reigosa, president of the Balearic High Court, and the Balearic prosecutor, Antonio de Vicente Tutor.