An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 19 different religions and was now struggling to form a government after 29 months without a president. "With the help of the UN, it is fighting to keep instability from coming into the country from the Syrian crisis. "Lebanon is a country that is fragile but very resilient. The Lebanese people are very warm and welcoming and it is wonderful to think that they have had ten years of peace. We hope that will continue to grow and in my contacts with both parties, neither the Lebanese nor the Israelis wants any return to violence." Syria is a concern to UNIFIL. "It is a country that has had over five years of internal strife and is very fractured, with a lot of instability. "Lebanon is almost an oasis of calm. This is a very unusual for Leb- anon and south Lebanon is almost the calmest part of the country. "It is a country very similar to Ireland with a population of between 4.5-5 million. It's about the size of Leinster, yet it has 400,000 Palestinian refugees in 12 camps - three of them in the mission area. "On top of that, there are 1.1 million registered Syrian refugees. That's like the population of Dublin suddenly put upon a country with very limited resources. So Lebanon needs a lot of international support and is receiving it to retain its stability." The general, who was born in Athy, Co Kildare, described the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) as UNIFIL's strategic partner in car- rying out its mandate. "The LAF is one of the most trusted organi- sations in Lebanese society and it is in everybody's interest to build its capability and capacity to extend the government's remit into south Lebanon, right down to the Blue Line." The expectation was that around 15,000 Lebanese troops would be deployed in south Lebanon but at the moment there are only 2,000 operating there because of major security concerns in other parts of the country, particularly along its eastern border with Syria and also in the north. As a result, only 10% to 15% of UNIFIL's 400 daily operations are carried out in close co-operation with the LAF. "But we have a major partnership with them and we help to train them and build their capacity so that, at some point, they will take over responsibility for UNIFIL's duties in south Lebanon," he added. Despite Israeli claims that Hezbollah is stockpiling thousands of rockets and anti-tank weapons in villages in south Lebanon, General Beary said UNIFIL had not found any evidence of a big arms cache and had not been supplied with any precise details that would allow for a joint investigation with LAF. "We sometimes come across remnants left over from the 2006 war and they are taken away and disposed of by the LAF. It's not part of our mandate to search private properties and we have to exist in harmony with local communities. "We have more than 55 posts in south Lebanon but have a good relationship with the communities and all of our troops carry out what we call market walks, where they go out and patrol through villages and talk to the locals. "There is intensive induction training on our rules of engagement and also on sexual exploitation so we don't have any occasions where peacekeepers can be accused of exploiting in that manner. They are briefed that this is not acceptable." He pointed out that while the LAF has only been operating in the south for the past ten years, UNIFIL has been there for almost 40 years. There are currently some Lebanese nationals working with the sons and daughters of Irish peacekeepers with whom they worked in previous battalions. "The link has gone through generations. They know the parents of some of the peacekeepers, which is incredible." Lebanon was very much in the DNA of Defence Forces peacekeep- ing, he said. "Many of the Lebanese came over here on holiday and my former interpreter from 1984 has even lectured here. "I think it is important to see what instability can do to a country, not particularly Lebanon but the Middle East in general. "We need sometimes to have a little reality check in Ireland to ap- preciate what we have here, the freedom we enjoy, the ability to bring up our children, educate our children, go on foreign holidays; that's something that is denied in a lot of these very unstable countries." Apart from its military duties, UNIFIL troop-contributing countries also engage in vari- ous projects, providing finance for utilities such as electricity and clean water, while the Irish battalion continues its decades- long involvement in an orphan- age in Tibnine. Lebanon is currently in transi- tion. General Beary said there had been a lot of investment since the 2006 war but it had a weak economy and still needed help, with UNIFIL remaining a big employer in the south. "The more you develop the economy in south Lebanon, the less likely it is to return to war," he says. As force commander, General Beary does not have direct contact with Hezbollah's military front. But he has contacts with its political party with many of the mayors, or mukhtars, of the villages within UNIFIL's area of operation being members of Hezbollah. One of his most important duties is to chair a monthly tripar- tite conference on the Blue Line with generals from Lebanon and Israel. "We sit in one room and work out a lot of the difficulties. It is a very useful format and the only forum where Lebanon and Israel can speak." General Beary's appointment is for two years to allow him to initiate change. "Permanent ceasefire is a term I hope to introduce because that's where we want to go," he says. This article was published in the Irish Independent on 18th February 2017. Maj Gen Beary pictured on a recent visit to the Military College, Curragh Camp. Image courtesy of Gerry Mooney, Independent News & Media. UNIFIL's demining staff officer explains to UNIFIL's Head of Mission and Force Commander Maj Gen Michael Beary, how UNIFIL's mine clearance teams refurbish 'Blue Line' points to keep them visible. 25th October 2016. © UN Photo/Pasqual Gorriz

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