Camp Casablanca
The Camp Casablanca from 1999 to 2012, a military base of the Austrian Federal Army in Suhareka in southern Kosovo within the KFOR -Einsatzes. Camp Casablanca was originally built in autumn 1999 by the Bundeswehr as a camp for the Dulje Taskforce, an Austrian-Swiss unit that was part of the then Multinational Brigade South (MNB-S). It housed 25 Austrian KFOR contingents and for a long time was the largest base of the armed forces abroad in terms of the number of around 560 soldiers. Around 10,000 armed forces soldiers were stationed in the camp throughout the period.
In the camp were a headquarters company and two infantry companies with their Pandur Radpanzern . The 1st company was called "Scorpion Company" (Scorpion Coy) , the 2nd Company "Shark Company" (Shark-Coy) . In addition, the mechanized infantry platoon of the Swiss KFOR contingent ( Swisscoy ) and elements of the Bundeswehr were housed. In addition, the camp was also the headquarters for the Dulje task force, which was named after the nearby mountain pass in Suva Reka. The original brigade , at the beginning one of five such units, has since been replaced by the "Battlegroup West". An infantry company was disbanded in 2012 and the accommodation building was moved to another camp in Kosovo. From 2000, the camp housed mostly Austrian, German and Swiss troops and was operated jointly by Austria and Switzerland. Slovakia and Bulgaria, for example, provided other smaller contingents in the summer of 2001.
Furnishing
In the camp there was a chapel , a grocer's shop ( PX-Store ), a sports field , a tennis court , a climbing wall, a sauna and an extinguishing water pond for the camp fire brigade . The camp chapel was built by the Swiss contingent and inaugurated in summer 2000 by the military bishop for Austria Christian Werner . The accommodation consisted of gray and white containers , five in a row, two on top of each other, which were protected from rain by a wooden roof. The living containers provided accommodation for four people in an area of around 25 square meters. The Telekom Austria had a camp in the mobile phone mast erected, was on the phone with the national rate home. Several bars - Österreicherhof , Haifischbar , No-Name-Bar , Swiss-Chalet - were set up to look after the troops . Austrians, Swiss and Germans jointly produced the radio program Radio Casablanca .
Civil use
Before it was used as a military base, the property and the buildings on it belonged to a tire factory. The name "Casablanca" ( Spanish for "white house" ) comes from the white walls of the production hall and the mostly white containers of the temporary living and working infrastructure .
The fire station, in camp jargon Tegetthof-Platz , was named after the Austrian Vice Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff and served, among other things, representational purposes such as flag parades or the awarding of the NATO Non-Article 5 medal . The last flag parade took place on March 17, 2012, which marked the end of the troop presence with the departure of the last Austrian troops from the camp after twelve years.
On August 17, 2012, the Camp Casablanca was handed over to the community of Suva Reka in a ceremony via UNMIK , which is planning an industrial and commercial park, school facilities, a marketplace and a sports center on the site.
Web links
Coordinates: 42 ° 20 ′ 52.7 " N , 20 ° 49 ′ 22.9" E