An Cosantóir

| 13 "It's not until you have been here a few times that you really gain an understanding of the complexity of Lebanese culture," said Sgt O'Connor. "For example, in our AO alone you have Shi'a, Sunni, and Druze Muslims, and a number of Christian sects including Maronites. As long as you don't go around like a tourist taking pictures all over the place you'll be fine." Driving along we couldn't but notice that every time a local vehicle overtakes us its driver beeps his horn. Sgt O'Connor explained it had nothing to do with us being in UN vehicles, drivers habitually beep to let the person being overtaken know they are there: apparently most drivers in Lebanon rarely use their rear-view mirror. While Lebanon is a parliamentary democracy, it implements a special system known as confessionalism, which is intended to deter sectarian conflict and attempts to fairly represent the demographic distribution of the 18 recognised religious groups in government. For the average peacekeeper this type of information may not be of great use but other things about how the country is structured are more relevant. For instance, knowing who and what a mukhtar is can be really useful. Basically, the mukhtar is a local village leader. In some larger villages there may be several mukhtars, each acting as a spokesman for a particular group within the community. If a good relationship is built up with the mukhtars they can provide useful information on things like the local mood, if there is a problem in the area, or if they need the UN to do anything for them. Sgt O'Connor did his first tour of South Lebanon back in 1994 and he has literally seen it all. "Over my different tours I've seen everything from suicide bombings, IED attacks, shellings, and countless 'groundhogs'. (For anyone unfamiliar with the term, 'groundhog' was the order given to Irish troops to take cover in the bunkers due to incoming fire. Sometimes a groundhog might only last a short time while on other occasions it might last for days, depending on the severity of the shelling or firing taking place in the area.) "During my first tours we were out on the checkpoints," Sgt O'Connor continued. "They weren't easy. We were stopping every tenth car and searching it for arms and at times you could find yourself in a very tense situation. Today we are patrolling while other contingents are doing the checkpoints." Of all his trips Sgt O'Connor said his time with 106 Inf Bn had been the quietest. "At the moment the hostilities in Gaza have not affected Lebanon. The civil war in Syria hasn't had much of an impact in South Lebanon so far either, unlike other parts of the country. For example, there has been sectarian fighting around Tripoli in the north, and only a few weeks ago, in October, Gen Wissam al-Hassan, the head of Lebanon's internal security forces, was killed in a bomb attack that is being blamed by many on the Syrian regime." Even though things are relatively quiet UNIFIL is still aware of the threat from IEDs and landmines and, accordingly, troops are regularly briefed on these threats and brought through their drills. However, for Irish troops with a long experience of Lebanon, any trip without a groundhog for the entire trip classifies as quiet! On certain parts of our drive back to camp there were clear signs reminding us of the mainly military nature of the relationship between South Lebanon and Israel over the last thirty-odd years. At times we were not far from the Technical Fence and if you looked closely you might see an Israeli outpost. At another time we watched an IDF jet flying along the border. Meanwhile on our road we passed countless Hezbollah flags and posters and portraits of Hezbollah fighters who had died in action during the long and vicious conflict and who are viewed as martyrs. Some, we were told, were of fighters who had been killed while fighting for the Assad regime in Syria, which is supported by Hezbollah. It's not all minefields and armoured vehicles along the route, however. Herders waved and smiled as we passed by and children ran alongside our vehicles shouting excitedly as we slowed down to pass through the villages. Hopefully, someday all the mines and checkpoints will be gone and the rest of the world will get to see what a beautiful country all of Lebanon is. www.military.ie the defence forces magazine

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