Rumors are overtaken...

Just got off the phone with Operations and there has been another change of plan. The deployment of our group has been postponed till the 1st of April (no joke;-)). This also applies to the 2 staff officers (Jelle and I). Preparations will continue but at a slightly more moderate pace...

Rumors travel fast..

Still no definate info on the date of departure and the duration of my rotation (4 or 6 months) but well informed channels say I'll be heading for Sudan on the 6th or 8th of February. This means I'll travel with Jelle to Khartoum. Jelle - an army major with a logistics background- will be our man in Khartoum. I expect I will be helping out getting things sotred out for 1st Dutch Detachment in Sudan and of course learning whatever it is that I'm supposed to be doing down South. Rumors have it that the observer team will arrive at a yet to be determined later date. None of this is official of course until I get the writen order and knowing the speed at which our red tape operates this will probably be forwarded to me..... in Sudan.

Exercise UNPAMO

Last week we held our end exercise for the course. The exercise was designed to have us face as many different observer situations as possible in the short time given. This means compressing a whole mission period into one week. The exercise took place in the central part of the netherlands where all of the participants were divided over 3 team sites. Our task was to see that all of the warring factions- 4 in all- stuck to a ceasefire agreement. This means setting up patrols to monitor and observe and also getting in touch with the local warlords to negotiate infringements on the agreements. One of the most difficult aspects of being a neutral observer is the fact that you are not allowed to react to many situations and have to maintain a "distance". I can tell you that your fingers really start to itch from time to time and you get totally frustrated.
Apart from the interesting scenarios we faced it also gave us a great opportunity to get to know one another. Not unimportant considering you’ll be cooped up with some of the group for a good 4 months. I was stuck with Co, Edwin, Cas and Harry in Team Central. I must say I had a great time and couldn’t have hoped for a better bunch of teammates. A lot of laughs and open communication. One of the most hilarious moments was when a female role player left our site one evening and on the way out - seeing a fruit basket- said to our team leader, "Can I ask a brutal question... may I have a banana?". This is NOT something you should say in a room with 5 guys living under primitive circumstances. You can probably imagine we had the most difficult time to hold our laughter till she closed the door on the way out.


(role players take their jobs seriously)


("jarhead" Cas and Edwin in Team Centrals'
improvised command post)

Also kudos to our instructor team. It was one of the best organised exercises I’ve ever seen. Excellent role players - even an ex-Knesset bodyguard whom I owe a box of cigars - that made life miserable for all of us ;-)

I think I can speak for each and every one of the participants that we look to the upcoming mission with a lot more confidence than 3 weeks ago. Heck, some of us are even starting to look forward to it ....:-)



(Me talking with the Director of Operations
Maj-Gen Eikelboom(r))

Pieces falling into place...

Just two weeks ago we were all full of questions about our mission. A lot of things still had to be arranged and nobody really had all of the answers yet. Well, we still don't have all of the answers bur we're getting there. Our gear is almost sorted out and we are getting some additional usefull stuff like a medical kit(with syringes and such), aluminum crates, portable closets and stretchers that are large enough for us Europeans. We had some first hand intel that the available cots were more suitable for our Bengalese friends. At least we are getting more and more confident that the logistic side of our deployment will work out. Jelle, who will be stationed in Karthoum has made arrangements for the mail service. As far as we can see now I will be the link between HQ and our team of observers in the field. As for the mission itself we haven't recieved much more information apart from what we can gather from the news or Internet. At the end of the month there will be another fact finding mission to check if the UN has fully deployed in the AoR as was agreed. Our definate date of departure will be based on the report of the fact finding mission.

Next week we will discover if we payed enough attention in class. The course will end with a 5 day field excercise where we will get the chance to demonstrate our newly aquired skills of observing and negotiating. Thanks to our highly motivated and dedicated instructors I'm sure we'll all do just fine.

Practice makes perfect

After a tiresome week and a half of classroom lectures - there's an awful amount of information we have to digest - we went on a field trip to the Army Mine School. Topic of the day: mine and improvised explosive device(IED) awareness. Apart from road traffic landmines are one of the greatest hazards in out of area operations. Sudan has an estimated 500.000 - 2 million landmines buried in the soil. Unfortunately most of these are deposited in our Area of Responsibility (AoR). At the mine school we are taught how to best cope with this threat. Rule of Thumb is to not stray off the (cleared) roads or paths. In the unfortunate event that we should get caught in a mine field we practiced clearing a path through the area by "poking" a rod or other pointed object. Justt to make it more realistic they used dummy mines with small charges. The drawback of this method is that it's very time consuming and should only be used as a last resort.

(Ric and I gentlypoking for mines, you may also notice the tripwires)

A favorite spot for IED's are guardrails. This is the reason the were removed from the highways in Irak. Below the effect of just 2KG of explosives on a passing Jeep.


A day like this is extremely useful for us folk accustomed to moving around in a safe environment.

Shopping heaven...

...where else can you can fill your shopping carts full of goods and not have to pay for them? It's beyond me why they can't get more women to join the service;-). No seriously, we had to pick up "some"extra gear for the mission to complement our regular kit. Since Southern Sudan is a jungle region we get all the appropriate attire to be able to cope with the hot and sticky climate and more... we even got cold weather socks and turtleneck shirts. Now comes the hard part of figuring out what all of the kit is actually for, how you fit it on and how much of it we really need to take along. You have to bear in mind that you will have to carry it all yourself at some point. And that some point is about 5000 km away from here in 35C +.



On a different topic. The trip to work this morning was quite spectacular...

(Yes Hemi, it's a truck on fire;-))

Preparations for deployment have started.

To prepare for the mission I have to follow a 3 week training course at the Dutch Army's Peacekeeping Mission School along with the 16 other candidates. The other people come from all military disciplines and vary in rank from luitenant to colonel. Turns out that the mission was as much a surprise to the school as it was to all of us. Normally you need at least a couple of months for a decent preparation. So with just 5 weeks till D-Day it wasn't a surprise that not all of the necessary information was available. I can tell you this is pretty frustrating because there's a lot to be done. Apart from training you need the proper vaccinations, gear and red tape sorted out. Fortunately we have a great group of guys and a gal and our instructors are doing their best to help us out.

Getting used to the idea

After the initial 'shock' I soon got comfortabel with the idea of going on the mission. After all it is part of being in the military and it gives reason to why you joined up in the first place. I can't say the same for the 'homefront'. Being away for 6 months has - as we say in the military- a major impact on daily operations. But most of all it will affect Brennain and Darren who will have to do without daddy for a while.

During the Christmas break I have been gathering as much information as I could find on the current situation in the mission area. Most of it I found here on the UNMIS webpage http://www.unmis.org/english/en-main.htm. In a nutshell:

Sudan is roughly 50 times as large as the Netherlands (or 5 times as large as France). The Southern part of Sudan is, opposed to the Islamic North, a mainly Christian oriented region. The region is also rich in natural resources which have yet to be fully exploited. The area which is in hands of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) is reasonably stable. The incidents that do take place are mainly bandit attacks staged from Uganda by the Lord's Resistance Army directed towards civilian targets. Looting, rape and murder are the result. With the dry season starting (Southern Sudan is a tropical jungle environment) it is expected that the number of incidents will intensify. Roads will become more accesible thus more commerce will take place hence more loot. It is expected the biggest challenge is the repatriation of the hundreds of thousands of refugees and their millions of livestock.

North and South Sudan have been in a state of civil war for all but 11 years since 1955. The UN task is to monitor if both the government of Sudan (GoS) and the SPLA abide to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement(CPA) which was signed in january 2005 and is ultimately supposed to result in an independant Southern Sudan in 2011.

While this conflict is being resolved the atrocities and suffering in Dafur (West Sudan) continue...

Can it get any worse?

Wednesday December 14. I finish lunch with a hole the size of the grand canyon in one of my molars. It cracked completely in half after biting on a grape pit. Not much pain at the time but still very annoying. Just my luck that I'm stuck in Luxemburg for a 3 day course. The dentist will have to wait till I get back. I give him a call to make an appointment. He's got time....in 3 weeks. Can it get any worse? Unfortunately... yes. I get a call from my boss later that afternoon, "Jan, there's been a last minute request to supply a candidate for the United Nations Mission in Sudan. You're seriously being considered. Just thought I'd let you know."

Wow, that came out of the blue. It takes a while for it to sink in. The next morning I got the final confirmation. I'm to be appointed Senior Officer Air Operations in Juba, Sudan for a period of 6 months. I leave in February. That leaves me just 7 weeks including the holiday season to get everything sorted out. I'm sure this is only the first of many challenges to come...