Letter from a Peacekeeper
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This is a 'letter' from a fictional member of the peacekeeping mission in Cambodia (which ended in September 1993).
Hello, my name is Brian. I served with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Cambodia. I can tell you a little of what it's like to be a "soldier for peace." When we were invited to Cambodia in 1992, the country had experienced more than thirty years of conflict.
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Then the war was over and we were asked to help build and keep the peace.
I was assigned to help refugees return to their homes and villages.
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Our unit had a really tough job to do! Many of the refugees were children under the age of 15 who had been living in refugee camps far away from their villages, near the border of Thailand.
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Seoun, for example, was a mother of three children. Their homes had been destroyed and they were staying in a camp called Site 2. That was their 'home' for eight years. |
| Once the war ended, they had to go to their real home. But "home" was far away and Seoun worried about what she would find in her village. There were landmines left in the ground.
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There was the danger of malaria and other diseases. The water was not safe to drink. There were no schools. There were fighters who still had guns.
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| Our job was to make the return easier for Seoun and others like her. Sometimes, we had to go into dangerous areas and didn't know what to expect. The peacekeepers made sure that people kept the peace and the population was not harmed.
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| They collected all the weapons they could and took out many landmines. Health clinics and schools were built. Later, we also helped to organize Cambodia’s first elections since the war. |
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People from many UN agencies and other organizations worked together to help Cambodians rebuild their country—so people like Seoun and her children can live in peace.
All in all, it was a tough job, but I'm proud of what we did. Serving in an international peace force brought me closer to other people from around the world and I started to understand their special problems. I learned a lot about a culture and a country that I only knew as a spot on the world map, and even made new friends.
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Activities
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- What is a refugee?
- Look up Cambodia on a world map. What are its neighbouring countries?
- Using the information in the 'letter' and other reading you may have done, describe some of the difficulties Brian and his colleagues might have had in helping refugees go home.
- Pretend you are Brian and you have been in Cambodia for one month. Write a letter to your family describing what it is like to be a part of this peacekeeping mission and what your life is like.
Add details in the letter that were not contained in the interview, such as your first impressions of Cambodia, the people, the food, and so on.
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