// Postcard from Sudan
By FLTLT Ivan Green (NZDF UNMO)
FLTLT Green in Sudan
Five-and-a-half-months into a six month deployment to Sudan, the three members of the New Zealand contingent of the United Nations Military Observers (UNMOs) on The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), are well and starting to prepare to go home.
As I reflect on my time in Sudan it seems like a blur of patrols, meetings, and reports. Everything has happened so quickly and now we have a few weeks before we leave our team site and start the check-out procedure from the mission. The induction training in Khartoum feels like a few weeks ago. However, it was early March when the three of us started the process of checking in to the mission.
The chance to live and work in Sudan and interact with the Sudanese people has been the highlight of the mission. To see people working to make a normal life for themselves and their families and live without the threat of war has been inspiring.
After decades of civil war, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (signed in 2005) brought peace to the country—most of the time. Occasionally there is still conflict between Northern and Southern military forces and killings over cattle and tribal origins. This is tragic; however, we are seeing a decrease in some of the violence and there is hope for the future.
As well as interacting with the Sudanese people, we have had the opportunity to work with various personnel from the other nations serving in the mission. During our time here, there have been UNMOs from 14 different countries, on our team site alone. That’s a lot of languages to say hello in! On top of that, there are the other sections with their own specialist areas such as disarmament, human rights, electoral matters, gender equality and UN Police—to name a few.
We are based at a team site in a place called Rumbek. For those interested, our exact location is 06o50’053”N 29o40’413”E. Now, you may think it’s a bit strange to be putting down coordinates to describe a location. However, due to a lack of roads and prominent features in our area, we use GPS coordinates a lot.
We live on the UN camp and our team site has become a little community in its own right, with everyone looking out for each other. Be it going on a patrol with electoral personnel, playing volleyball with the Indian signal detachment or attending a farewell party for one of the executive staff, the sense of community is everywhere. We are a strange mix of military, police and civilian staff.
The UNMIS is different from other missions, with the military reporting to civilians—a novel position to be in for military personnel! Fortunately, a common sense of purpose and a genuine desire to work collaboratively has meant that this unusual situation is achieving the UNMIS objectives. When you know who the key people are—military or civilian—things get done in the most efficient manner. You know you’re into the mission proper when everything seems to get a bit easier. We are beyond that point now and have moved on to helping new arrivals and taking leadership roles within the UNMOs.
What I have gained from this experience is a whole new appreciation of how we, as New Zealanders and members of the NZDF, do business. The quality of our military training is very good and this, coupled with our Kiwi ‘can-do’ attitude, has helped us thrive in this environment.
But we couldn’t do what we do here without the support we have received from New Zealanders—family, friends, Welfare personnel, and people who don’t even know us. You have provided some great support: a package, a conversation, an e-mail and Anzac Day messages; all are precious connections with home. We appreciate it and, when we get back, we will return the favour for others deployed overseas.