An insite to UNMO work;
The area is very hot and dry. There is a constant wind. I have arrived in winter which is also the dry season. I have been here 5 weeks and have never seen a drop of rain. The village/town that I am located is very small and does not have much to offer. Most villages / towns are judged in size by their market and availability of items. The market here has some onions, small tomatoes, potatoes, pasta and bread. You can also by 500ml coke/Pepsi, some interesting juices, bottled water and buns. That is all. Not much more.
I have food shipped in from home and I place orders for frozen chicken and eggs from the sector headquarters – it comes in by chopper 3 times a week.
I have been assigned two positions here (most are assigned one). I was warned many times prior to coming here that English speaking and Europeans are the hardest workers and are often given other peoples extra work that they do not want to do. Things are definitely not equal here. The work ethics of some of the countries are quite interesting. Even when they have a job or task to do it will be done at a pace that is unbelievable.
So presently (because of vacations) I am the G2 – Intelligence Officer and the G5 – Civil-Military Cooperation Officer. On top of these jobs I still go out on Patrol as either a member or a patrol leader. The G2 job incorporates analyzing data, patrol reports, media reports and making assessments and recommendations. I also look at the upcoming weeks patrols (we get assigned 7 days of patrols every Friday) and analyze the security situation of the patrol area, the mine fields and the village itself.
The G5 job is very interesting. I work as the go-between military and civilian groups including the multiple NGO (Non-government organizations) and civil authorities. Once again I analyze the patrol reports and share information, plan group or team activities and recommend to higher which villages we should visit again.
Our two main focuses right now have been the Monitoring and Verification of armed groups (M&V) and Election Assistance. The M&V is done in cooperation with both armies of which we sit right in between. We verify the number of troops, weapons (small arms and tanks) and ammunition. Our second focus is assisting the Electoral Assistance. This country preparing to hold its first democratic election in over 25 years. There has already been censes which was contested by South Sudan. Now we are preparing for the national, regional and local level elections which are to take place in April 2010.
This election is an incredible task that has the assistance of over 60 countries. You can imagine the task of getting information out to people who live in villages with out hydro, roads and with people that can’t read or write. The population has been trying to register over the past month and it has been a difficult task. The next task will be actually running the first democratic election and being able to run it in such a way to prevent anyone from contesting it. This will rove to be an incredible feat. I am not sure what our/my role will be in that. Presently we will conduct a patrol to a village and gain info on how the registration went and whether there were any problems.
Once this election is over the country must hold a referendum with in 12 months as part of the UN agreement. This referendum will have the people of Sudan decided if they want to separate North Sudan from South Sudan or have one unified Sudan. The separation would most likely be across the 1-1-56 line. Even this line, which was created by the British in 1955 is contested and has not been mapped out.
Presently the village that I am in is controlled by the South Sudan Army – The Sudan People’s Liberation Army which according to the UN Comprehensive Peace Agreement is supposed to have ALL of its troops south of the 1-1-56 line. I am presently in the Blue Nile State which is above the 1-1-56 line. This state along with 3 others are contested land and both armies want it.
So other then that I perform about 3-5 patrols per week. These patrols consist of visiting a village or an army camp to gather information, solve problems or pass on information. The patrols consist of short range (<50kms),>100kms – two days) or Air Patrol. We have an armed escort for all of these patrols as I am an unarmed peacekeeper.
On days when I am not on patrol I am in the office checking emails, preparing briefs and preparing for the next patrol.
Days here start at 0810am, we hve lunch at 1:30, a briefing at 2:30 then its your time until final radio check at 6:00pm at which time you are 100% on your own time. Fridays are the only day where we have no offical patrol other then 50min in our own village. Fridays we do training and car maint.
Just an insite.......
