BOSNIAN PRESIDENCY MEMBER ZELJKO KOMSIC VISITED FRANCE

ARROMANCHE, France (June 10,2008) – Upon invitation of the French national committee for celebration of landing of the allies in Normandy during the World War 2, a member of the Bosnian Presidency Željko Komšić, as an honorary guest, attended the central celebration and the following activities.On that occasion, along with participation of the French and the British Minister for soldiers’ issues, he laid a wreath of the Bosnian Presidency at the British cemetery in Renville and paid his respects to all killed allies.Bosnian Presidency Member Željko Komšić attended the central ceremony of erecting the flags of nine allied countries, military honors and the parade of the French Army, as well as the special ceremony of paying respect to the Keiffer Commandos Unit that holds a special place in the history of the allied landing.

Komšić also briefly talked with the French and British Minister and cordially greeted the old warriors, high French figures, diplomats and military representatives of the allied countries.

Bosnian Presidency Member Željko Komšić also attended the special event of in Merryville and on that occasion, he will officially present the Dakota 43-15073 airplane – a gift of Bosnia to France.

The aircraft, built in 1944 in Long Beach, California,USA,was used to move troops to Normandy on D-Day.It was sold to the Czechoslovakian air fleet, when the World War II ended.In 1960, the plane was then sold to the France, which in 1973 sold it to Yugoslavia.

Throughout the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia the plane stayed at the Bosnian Airbase in Rajlovac,near the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

A Douglas C-47 - Dakota 43-15073 , seen in this September 2007 file picture, laid for 13 years in a parking bay at the Bosnian Airbase in Rajlovac near the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. The plane, under the U S Army Air Force, took part in the invasions of Normandy and of the Provence, the Arnhem operation and the siege of Bastogne, as well as the clearing of the river Rhine.
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