Filipino UN peacekeepers in Golan Heights
Early on Aug. 28, al Qaeda-linked militants fighting government forces in
The leader of a nearby UN contingent from the Philippines telephoned a commanding officer in Manila
The UN force commander, General Iqbal Singh Singha of India Manila ,
Armed Forces of the Philippines
chief of staff General Gregorio Catapang gave different orders to his
subordinate thousands of miles away in the Middle East :
Stand your ground. Don't surrender.
For three days, Filipino troops fended off hundreds of
rebels from the Islamic militant Nusra Front group, killing at least three on
the final day before escaping under cover of darkness to Israel
UN officials and diplomats say the incident with the
Philippine peacekeepers highlights a fundamental problem with peacekeeping
missions, one that may be impossible to resolve. National peacekeeping
contingents retain allegiance to their commanders at home and when bullets fly,
they have no problem disobeying UN force commanders and taking orders from
home.
Based on interviews with UN officials, diplomats and
Philippine military sources, including an official report on the incident from
Manila, Reuters has pieced together a narrative of the events of Aug. 28 to
Aug. 30 leading up to the dramatic escape of Philippine troops from the
militants' siege.
It was not the first time that fighting from Syria ’s three-year-old civil war spilled onto Israel Golan
Heights since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011.
The 1,223-strong six-nation UN force, known as UNDOF, has
been on the Golan Heights since 1974. Its job
is to monitor the ceasefire line between Syria
and Israel
Before the Syrian war broke out, blue-helmeted UN observers
stationed in the mountainous region had a relatively easy job. For years their
main enemy was boredom.
That changed in March 2013, when Syrian rebels kidnapped 21
Filipino peacekeepers. All were released unharmed, but two months later rebels
kidnapped and released a handful of others. The spillover of violence from Syria 's civil war prompted Austria , Croatia
and Japan
The Philippines Fiji , Nepal
and Ireland
After the 2013 kidnappings, countries providing troops
complained that carrying a pistol was insufficient for a shifting battleground
where rebels have shoulder-launched missiles and heavy machine guns. They
wanted armored vehicles and heavier weapons - and the freedom to shoot to kill,
if necessary, when under attack.
In June of last year, when the UN Security Council approved
its six-month renewal of UNDOF's mandate, the council emphasized "the need
to enhance the safety and security of UNDOF." It also endorsed UN
recommendations for UNDOF to change its "posture and operations,"
allowing troops to defend themselves when attacked. The Security Council
language on the UNDOF mandate was typically vague about the lengths to which
peacekeepers could go in their own defense, but the new flexibility granted to
the force did satisfy the demands of the council members and UNDOF troop
contributing countries.
The Filipinos put those tougher rules of engagement to work
on Aug. 30 when they killed three rebels in a firefight.
Order disobeyed
After encircling the troops on Aug. 28, Nusra militants
communicated to the Filipinos and to the Fijians, who were being held elsewhere
at an unknown location, an offer of safe passage if they handed over their
weapons.
The Filipinos did not trust the militants to keep their
word. Philippine military officials in Manila
Taking their orders from home, they ignored General Singha.
Rather than abandoning their position and weapons, they stayed put and prepared
to defend themselves while Philippine military officials and their UNDOF
contingent discussed escape plans.
UN officials vehemently denied there was an order for the
peacekeepers to leave their guns behind, especially as Nusra is subject to a UN
arms embargo. What UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous has acknowledged is that
the Filipinos were ordered to hold their fire to avoid jeopardizing the lives
of the Fijians. He voiced total confidence in General Singha's decisions during
the standoff.
Two days later, tensions escalated. The Nusra militants were
growing impatient at the negotiations with UNDOF. The United Nations had
already fulfilled one of Nusra's conditions by issuing a statement that said
the world body was told the Fijians were seized "for their own protection."
But the UN statement was not enough for the rebels.
Around 6 a.m. on Aug. 30 the rebels attacked position 68 in
the disengagement zone. Militants on three pickup trucks with mounted weapons
attempted to ram through the steel gate of the encampment but were unable to
break through. The Filipinos fired on the rebels but began to run low on
ammunition. Sporadic exchanges of fire lasted for seven hours.
In the meantime, Filipino troops supported by an Irish
armored column rushed to nearby position 69 to extract 32 trapped Filipinos.
The armored column was fired upon but the UN peacekeepers did not fire back.
The operation succeeded.
There were still 40 Filipinos trapped at position 68, along
with the 45 Fijian hostages elsewhere. The United Nations tried to link the
groups in negotiations but Nusra refused, saying they were separate issues.
A ceasefire was reached that would run until negotiations
were to resume at 9 a.m. on Aug. 31. Nusra reinforced its siege as more than 20
vehicles with over 200 rebels arrived on the scene to prevent the 40 remaining
Filipinos breaking out of position 68 the way their compatriots had done at
position 69. But the reinforcement failed to keep the Filipinos penned in. The
blue helmets had a new plan.
Under cover of darkness, Filipino soldiers at position 68
quietly cut the barbed wire and one-by-one scaled a perimeter wall three meters
(yards) tall, crossed a mine field and walked 2.3 kms (1.4 miles) to the
Israeli side of the Golan Heights . The last
man reached safety two hours later.
Catapang jubilantly described it to reporters as "the
greatest escape".
UN officials acknowledge a sharp disagreement between Singha
and the Filipinos, and several accused the Filipinos of thinking only of their
own safety and ignoring that of the Fijians held captive.
"The force commander was not only thinking of the
security and safety of the Filipinos, but also of the Fijians. Resolving only
one issue could affect the resolution of the second problem," said a
senior UN official.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/95295/how-filipino-un-peacekeepers-defied-orders-opened-fire-and-escaped-syrian-rebels
