Click here for more information on the UNIFIL mission.

I wish to thank all the students who took part in this for asking so many intelligent and mind-boggling questions. It is also very heartening to know that their knowledge of the United Nations and peace-keeping operations is first class. Keep it up.

Daljeet Bagga, UNIFIL
 

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b. The primary mission of UNIFIL is to confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and to assist the Government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area. UNIFIL has been in operation for 20 years-- since 1978.  During this time it has been prevented from fully implementing  its mandate, however. Israel has maintained its occupation of parts of south Lebanon, where the Israeli forces and a local armed group supported by Israel continued to be targets of attacks by other groups opposed to the Israeli occupation. UNIFIL does its best to limit the conflict and protect the area's inhabitants from the fighting.

UNIFIL tries to help manage or control the conflict in south Lebanon. Through our contacts with all parties in the area, we often manage to defuse violent confrontations between the two parties before they get out of control. In addition, our military observations help to provide first-hand impartial information on movements and developments in the area.

c. There have been many times when UN peacekeepers -- soldiers and civilians alike -- have been caught in the middle of fighting. This is definitely a cause for worry.

In Sarajevo, during the height of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993, there were several times when I or my colleagues came close to sniper, mortar, or artillery fire that could have killed or maimed us, just like the many  civilians who were shot and hurt. That shook me up tremendously. It scared me in the beginning but after some time I learned to carry on in spite of it.  Risk and danger were always high, but when I saw the courage and perseverance of the citizens of Sarajevo and other Bosnian cities, I just tended to ignore the risks involved.

A particular incident I cannot easily forget took place in August 1995. I was following a bus in the UN car when all of a sudden the bus stopped. Its passengers began scampering out and crying and yelling for help. The driver had been badly wounded by a 14 mm bullet fired from a nearby hill. All of a sudden again there was shooting at the bus from the hill. Most of the passengers ran to take shelter behind the bus and in a nearby building. I just could not leave the driver there to die. With the help of a young man - while shooting around us continued -  we managed to lift him into my car and rush him to the hospital. However, the wound was so bad that he died the same night.  I felt very sad. The next day when I went to the hospital to meet with the doctor, the driver's family members were also present. I still cannot forget the agonising cries of the wounded driver and his mourning family - these still haunt me.

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The main task for every United Nations peacekeeper is to carry out his or her mission mandate as authorized by the Security Council, to separate  warring factions and to do the best possible to bring about peace between hostile parties. At the same time, it is crucial that UN peacekeepers stay neutral and impartial to remain credible and respected.

We do our best to alleviate the suffering of people caught in the middle of strife and to restore peace and build confidence without taking sides.  We do our utmost to not have our personal opinion  cloud our judgment.  Just as the UN Security Council adopts resolutions aimed at restraining perpetrators of violence, unjust aggression or war crimes, on the ground it is very hard for UN peacekeepers to be silent spectators while seeing blatant aggression by the stronger against the weaker. Neutrality is a crucial principle. Some would say it is the essence of UN peacekeeping, but a neutral stance may confront a peacekeepers with a dilemma when dealing with situations in which civilians are victimized or when the UN peacekeeping soldiers,  or civilian UN personnel themselves are ambushed, injured or even killed.

b. The situation is not as good as one would wish. UNIFIL's primary mandate - to confirm Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon -  remains, unfortunately, unfulfilled twenty years after the Force's inception. Another task - to assist the Lebanese Government restore its authority in the area - is a continuous process.  But UNIFIL has certainly positively contributed to stability and efforts to maintain international peace and security in the area by its very presence, patrolling and monitoring functions.
UNIFIL is a very complex mission which has faced many difficulties and uncertainties. At its establishment in 1978, it was assumed that all parties would fully cooperate in the implementation of its mandate spelled out by the Security Council Resolution 425. This was never the case. Israel has not fully withdrawn its forces. The situation is worsened by the fact that some armed elements in Lebanon feel that UNIFIL is hindering their free movement in their quest to attack Israel. The conflicting parties in UNIFIL's mandated operation area have sometimes threatened the very existence of UNIFIL by firing at UN positions, resulting in loss of life and property. UNIFIL's tasks are very difficult to attain and are constantly challenged. Serving the mission as a Blue Helmet or civilian staff can be dangerous.       When Israel established its self-declared "security zone", which  overlapped with part of UNIFIL's deployment area, the "South Lebanese Army (SLA)", an Israeli military proxy militia, erected several positions in the middle of UNIFIL's operation area. These positions became targets for Lebanese resistance groups such as Hamas, Hisbollah and the Islamic Jihad. UNIFIL faced the dilemma of being caught in the middle of fighting without the authority or the means to force Israel to withdraw and to disarm the SLA, or to disarm  the various resistance groups. On many occasions we have  been able to limit hostilities  but not prevent them completely. The Lebanese government supports UNIFIL's mission but has, up until now, been prevented from effectively exercising control and guaranteeing  safety in its southern territory.

However, UNIFIL plays an invaluable role in controlling the armed conflict in southern Lebanon and preventing  an escalation of violence. Through our contacts with all parties in the area, we often manage to diffuse confrontations before they get out of control. In addition, our military observation helps to gather impartial, first-hand information on movements and developments in the area.

c. To put it very simply, the war in Lebanon can only  be stopped when all  sides  iron out their differences in an amicable way. According to Security Council resolution 425 of 1978, Israel is supposed to withdraw unconditionally from the area of southern Lebanon it occupies -- but 20 years on, this has still not happened. As a condition for withdrawal, Israel demands security guarantees from the Lebanese Government so as not to be subjected to guerrilla attacks against its northern border communities.  Lebanon insists on unconditional Israeli withdrawal under the terms of resolution 425. The stand-off continues.

My greatest wish is to see an early resolution to the problem in Lebanon and in the Middle East. In this mission alone, from its inception in 1978 until September 1998, 228 UNIFIL personnel have sacrificed their lives in the cause of peace and nearly 350  have been injured in the line of duty.

d. UNIFIL's tasks are to:

Prevent fighting in or from UNIFIL's area of operation;
Prevent entry of weapons and ammunition;
Observe and report any military activities;
Provide protection and humanitarian services to the civilian population.

UNIFIL's battalions are to check, observe and patrol the area of operation: Checkpoints have been established on the perimeter of our area at important road junctions and around inhabited areas. Vehicles and persons entering the area of operation are searched at the checkpoints. Units also maintain observation posts, most of which are equipped with modern surveillance devices.

My job as a Press & Information officer is to inform the media - local and international - about new developments in our area in an accurate and impartial way. Also, as a deputy to the Senior Political Adviser, I regularly meet with leaders of various factions and political organizations. This helps us keep abreast of current developments and lets us use our "good offices" to possibly prevent violent incidents.

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a. On the humanitarian side, UNIFIL plays an important role. Although we have no budget for humanitarian projects, we do what we can with the modest means at our disposal. Most importantly, nearly all UNIFIL battalions receive Lebanese civilians on a daily basis for medical and dental treatment. Our bulldozers occasionally build roads in the villages. Sometimes, we have collections and fund-raisers among the UN soldiers to finance humanitarian projects. Also, UNIFIL frequently conducts "harvest patrols": Lebanese farmers whose land is near positions of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) or its ally, the South Lebanese Army, are routinely escorted, for protection, to their fields by UNIFIL armoured personnel carriers and troops.

UNIFIL also assists the civilian population - with funds from troop-contributing countries - by evacuating casualties; distributing educational material; providing schools and orphanages with equipment and social services; cleaning up the environment and water supply. UNIFIL has also helped Lebanese authorities transport and distribute supplies to villages in the Israeli- controlled areas when those villages faced shortages because of  restrictions imposed by Israeli military forces.

UNIFIL  works closely  with most humanitarian agencies in Lebanon and other UN- and international aid agencies, such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agencies for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA); the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

b. It would be impossible for me to give you a correct figure of the number of war-related civilian deaths in Lebanon between 1980 to 1998 - but whatever the figure may be, there've been too many! The war in Lebanon reflected the trend in recent conflicts in which the number of civilian fatalities continued to grow proportionally to soldiers or members of armed factions that died.

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A a. The duties and/or responsibilities of UN peacekeepers - military and civilian staff - depend on the mandate of the mission and therefore vary from operation to operation. Initially, UN peacekeepers patrolled buffer zones between hostile parties, monitored cease-fires and helped diffuse local conflicts, allowing the search for durable, political settlements to continue. Taking into account UNIFIL's mandate as I've described it above, this is pretty much what UNIFIL peacekeepers are doing on a daily basis: patrolling the area, inspecting vehicles and searching persons at checkpoints, separating the hostile parties, while an overall long-term solution is being pursued politically.

In this sense, UNIFIL can be described as a  "traditional" UN peacekeeping operation which  deploys international military personnel mainly to separate armed factions hostile to each other and/or supervise a cease-fire or truce.  But UNIFIL is part of 49 UN missions, many of which have included civilian police officers, electoral experts and observers, deminers, human rights monitors, legal specialists, civil affairs officers, communications specialists and other professionals to carry out important functions as mandated by the Security Council.

b. Yes, Kristen, I certainly like what I am doing as an Information and Press Officer within the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission. On a personal level, and not as a UN peacekeeper, one cannot distance personal life, experiences and feelings about what is going on in the particular place a UN peacekeepers serves, from his or her "official functions".  One starts to identify with the country, the people, culture and  language, most strongly through personal contacts and friendships with  local people and colleagues from all over the world. As UN peacekeeping staff, we try our best to assuage the sufferings of the local population by assisting them in various humanitarian relief programs. It gives immense satisfaction to see some elderly civilians come and bless you just for being there and helping them in their day-to-day life. We know that what we are doing is just not enough for them but at least we are doing our very best.

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• The 1979 Convention Against The Taking Of Hostages, by which countries agree to make the taking of hostages punishable;
• The 1993 Convention On The Safety Of United Nations And Associated Personnel, specifically focuses on protected UN staff, including peacekeepers serving field mission from terrorist, following numerous violent attacks against United Nations staff that caused injuries and deaths;
• The 1997 International Convention On The Suppression Of Terrorist Bombings, aimed at denying "safe haven" to suspects wanted for terrorist bombings by obligating each State or party to the Convention to prosecute or extradite such persons; and
• The 1994 Declaration On Measures To Eliminate International Terrorism, which condemned "all acts and practices of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable, wherever and by whomever they were committed."