An Cosantóir

| 15 humanitarian access to civilian populations and the safe return of displaced persons; asJoint EX Neptune Thunder sisting the LAF in establishing, between the Blue Line and the Litani River, an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon and UNIFIL. The current UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon force commander of UNIFIL is Maj Gen Paolo Serra from Italy, and the deputy force commander is Irish officer Brig Gen Patrick Phelan. Travelling around UNFIL's Area of Operations Checkpoint (AO) provides an opportunity to see a dynamic multinational force working alongside the LAF and the local authorities. Current contributing nations to the force include: Austria, Armenia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Cyprus, ElSalvador, Finland, France, FYR Macedonia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Qatar, Slovenia, Spain, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Turkey. UNIFIL carries out a range of operations across its AO, which runs between the Litani River in the north and the Blue Line in the south. These operations include day- and night-time patrols, observation posts, monitoring the Blue Line, and clearing unexploded ordnance (UXO) and cluster munitions. Immediately upon the deployment of LAF troops in the south, which took place in parallel with the withdrawal of the IDF and the expansion of UNIFIL, the LAF and UNIFIL established mechanisms to closely co-ordinate their operational activities, such as patrols and checkpoints. In 2007 UNSC Resolution 1773 called for further co-operation as it recognised that the deployment of UNIFIL and the LAF in the area between the Litani River and the Blue Line, 'helped to establish a new strategic environment in southern Lebanon'. Accordingly, since the beginning of 2008, UNIFIL and the LAF have further intensified their co-operation and moved beyond co-ordinating their operational activities to carrying out combined activities together on a daily basis. These include various types of combined dayand night-time patrols throughout the AO and along the Blue Line; conducting checkpoints; and recovering and destroying weapons, munitions and infrastructure left from previous conflicts. UNIFIL's force commander (FC) has several specialist units under his command. One of these is the Mine Action Co-ordination Centre for South Lebanon (MACC-SL), which was formed after the Israeli withdrawal in 2000. You cannot travel far in UNIFIL's AO without seeing 'Danger, Mines' signs in both English and Arabic. There are hundreds of thousands of mines and UXOs in South Lebanon left behind from the countless conflicts dating back to 1949. These mines and UXOs still present a huge threat to UNIFIL and LAF personnel as well as the civilian population. MACCSL co-operating closely with the Lebanese Mine Action Centre (LMAC) co-ordinates mine and cluster bomb clearance efforts in the country. The FC is also assisted by around 50 military observers of Observer Group Lebanon (OGL), an unarmed UN military observer mission that has been present in Lebanon since 1949 as part of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO). These observers conduct patrols in villages and along the Blue Line as a confidence-building measure and they work closely with the local population. An aspect of UNIFIL that many may not be familiar with is the Maritime Task Force (MTF), which has been supporting the Lebanese Navy since 2006 to monitor its territorial waters, secure its coastline and prevent the unauthorised entry into Lebanon by sea of arms or related material. The MTF is the first naval task force ever to participate in a UN peacekeeping mission and its deployment after the 2006 conflict was a landmark move that prompted Israel to lift its naval blockade of Lebanon. For one year, starting in 2008, the MTF was led by the European Maritime Force (EUROMARFOR), the first time that EUROMARFOR operated under a UN mandate. Rear Admiral Wagner Lopes de Moraes Zamith of Brazil currently commands the MTF with his flag on the Brazilian Navy frigate Liberal. To date, 15 countries have contributed to the MTF: Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Turkey. The force is currently comprised of eight ships; two each from Bangladesh and Germany, and one each from Brazil, Greece, Indonesia and Turkey. Since the start of its operations on 15 October 2006, the MTF has hailed well in excess of 47,000 ships and referred more than 2,600 vessels to the Lebanese authorities for further inspections. www.military.ie the defence forces magazine

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