An Cosantóir

www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE | 27 Vox Pops CAPT THOMAS FITZPATRICK, INSTRUCTOR UNTSI "The protection of civilians course offers our international and DF students the opportunity to explore how protection mandates impact commanders on the ground. We achieve this primarily through syndicate-based exercises, developing CONPLANS in response to protection issues in a post conflict peacekeeping environment. We emphasise the importance of liaison and dialogue between belligerents, and working with other protection actors to enhance the protective environment." MAJOR JAMES SILSON, 77 BRIGADE, BRITISH ARMY (DEPLOYMENTS TO AFGHANISTAN AND TO IRAQ) "The course has been excellent, really well instructed and well delivered, bringing in a wide range of people and particularly paying attention to the fact that its within UN contacts and that everything has to be integrated, so making sure that both in the instructors and in the course students you have military, Gardaí and civilians represented, and the Irish Defence Forces have been really welcoming and excellent hosts. The course has definitely added to my other courses like UN staff course and CIMIC course and given me a much better understanding of some of the fine detail concerning protection of civilians, but it has also given a better appreciation and understanding of how allied nations like the Irish DF conduct these PSO." LT LUCAS HABI, 13 BATTALION, LESOTHO DEFENCE FORCE "I have found the course very good, before I would have been unsure of what to do but it has shown me how to tackle problems with protection of civilians and how we can save people during a war and give them a better life. It will also change my decision making process, especially with dealing with other nations on the course, it makes you think outside the box with the ideas from these other nations." civilians is at the centre of UN peace and security agenda. Our peacekeepers and other personnel are increasingly being asked not only to keep armies at bay but also to protect people who are prey to militias and other combatants. We are saying no to impunity, and say yes to accountability, for those who commit crimes against humanity and other grave violations of human rights." To ensure students get the most from the course, the UNTSI School called upon vari- ous lecturers from different backgrounds to deliver lectures on various topics, some of these included lectures on mandates, cultural awareness and a gender perspec- tive. Apart from Defence Forces lecturers they also included lecturers from the An Garda Síochána and Irish charity Concern, who would deliver topics regarding their own involvement in Peace Support Opera- tions (PSO). Lectures added to the course for the first time this year was a 'The Role of Police on Peace Support Operations', given by Detec- tive Sgt O'Driscoll from An Garda Síochána. His experience from PSO comes from a tour he completed in Afghanistan with a EU lead police mission. In his lecture he gave a brief history of UN police missions and EU missions with the first UN police mission in 1960. He also spoke of on-going Garda mis- sions in Cyprus and Kosovo and some past missions in Namibia, Cambodia, Palestine and Afghanistan. He ended his lecture with a brief on his Afghanistan tour covering their role and tasks, also the challenges and issues that arose, mainly cultural difference. Another interesting lecture that was added to the course was the use of UAVs in the protection of civilian's role on PSO, presented by Capt Emmet Gallagher. Many UN Missions are utilising UAVs, including MINUSMA (Mali), MINUSCA (Central African Republic), and MONUSCO (Democratic Re- public of Congo). The lecture focused on the use of UAVs in Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) tasks that can increase situational awareness on the mission, locate and monitor armed groups, and monitor de- veloping and on-going humanitarian crises. This is all accomplished from what they call 'Protection through Projection'. There are many benefits of using UAVs for POC tasks, they are efficient, have a wide scope and also cost effective, but they also reduce the risk to personnel and are more discreet. Protection of Civilians is a very impor- tant aspect of UN missions and is one of the reasons why most host nations look for assistance from the UN. This course is proving to be an indispensable tool in serv- ing with overseas missions, with more and more armies seeing the importance of such training. I would recommend this course to anyone who is thinking of traveling overseas. The next POC course is due to be ran in the UNTSI School in April 2019. Please check IKONs Annual Training Directive for dates.

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