Cambodia: A Letter from the Field
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Background
In the 1950s, French colonial rule ended in Cambodia. But soon, the war in neighbouring Viet Nam began to spill over into the country. |
| As if this were not enough, the Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot came into power in 1975 and subjected the people of Cambodia to four terrible years. All the normal activities of life stopped.
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People were forced to leave their homes and had to work under very harsh conditions. About 1 million people died or were killed during this short period of time. In late 1978, Vietnamese troops ended the regime of Pol Pot and began a new government.
Eleven years of civil war followed as rival factions fought each other. Throughout the 1980's, the Secretary-General of the United Nations mediated among the Governments and the parties concerned to find a satisfactory solution to the Cambodian crisis. Following the withdrawal of Viet Nam's troops in 1989, the Paris Conference on Cambodia was convened.
In 1991, a cease-fire went into effect.
The Paris Agreements gave the United Nations the huge task of leading the country to peace and restoring to it a normal way of life. The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) was established in February, 1992. UNTAC's role was to:
a. supervise the cease-fire and demobilize the armed forces of the Cambodian parties
b. ensure the respect of human rights
c. organize and conduct elections
General elections were held in Cambodia in May 1993. Almost 90 percent of registered voters went to the polls and the United Nations declared the elections free and fair. The mission was completed in September 1993.
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The following is a 'letter' from a fictional member of UNTAC. Although Brian is a composite creation, the facts are accurate.
Hello, my name is Brian and I am from Canada. I served in the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) and can tell you what it's like to be a "soldier for peace".
In Cambodia, I was part of an international force of more than 21,000 military and civilian personnel from over 100 countries. It is exciting to be a part of such an international operation where people from different parts of the world work towards the same goal.
I was assigned to a unit that dealt with 'repatriation'. Our job was to help the Cambodian people who had lost everything and were now not only homeless but also far away from their original villages and towns.
But how do you go about this? How do you go about helping people return to their villages when the roads and buildings are mined? When the homes in the villages have fallen apart? When there is no safe water to drink and schools and clinics are in disrepair?
As you can imagine, this was not just a question of putting refugees on a bus back home.
There were more than 360,000 refugees and most of them were living in refugee camps along the Thai border. They were young, ninety percent of them under the age of 45, about my own age; and half of them under the age of 15, the age of my children and their friends. Half of them!
It's hard to explain how tough this assignment was. Numbers can't tell the real story. In fact, they obscure it in many ways. Think of it in terms of Seoun's life or the life of her children. For eight years they lived in a place simply called 'Site 2'.
It was a camp, temporary and far away from their home. But it was secure. The area had been cleared of land mines and was free from malaria. The family had food, safe water and schools for the children.
Then it was time for her to reutrn 'home'. Before she left, she said that she was scared because she wasn't sure that life in the village was going to be any better for her children than life in the refugee camp.
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| UNTAC tried to make the return easier for Soeun and others. According to the original plan, each returning family would be given some land to farm. |
| But we soon saw that people needed more help and so we offered the returning refugees a number of other choices. |
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For example, they could get land and wood to build a house or they could take cash or they could receive transportation back to a place near their relatives. In the beginning, most of the people chose to take the land and the wood to build a house. And then guess what happened; we had wood shortages!
Health clinics and child-care centres were also desperately needed as were schools and teachers. There was also the question of security, which worried returning refugees. So peacekeepers patrolled most areas, monitored the ceasefire and collected weapons from the various rival forces.
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In these ways, many UN agencies and other organizations worked together to try to rebuild Cambodia and to make it possible for Soeun and her children to live in peace. As you can guess, we were more successful in some of our tasks than in others.
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| Despite serious difficulties, UNTAC was able to accomplish its central
goal of holding a free and fair election in Cambodia and laying a sound foundation for the people of Cambodia to build a stable future.
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All in all, it was a tough job, but I'm really proud of my role as a
Member of an international United Nations peacekeeping operation.
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Activities
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- Look up the word 'repatriation' in a dictionary. What does Brian's letter add to that definition?
- Based on the information in the letter from Brian, describe the kinds of jobs that UNTAC peacekeepers were involved in. Why are they important to peacekeeping?
- Imagine you are 'Brian'. How would you tell Seoun that returning to her village is safe and secure?
- Using the information in the article and other reading you may have done, what are some of the difficulties involved in repatriation (helping people return to their homes)?
- Research another Peacekeeping Mission. After you have completed the research, write a short letter from the field explaining some of the tasks.
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