Keeping the peace: stories of Australian peacekeepers - Middle East
- Middle East
- Kashmir
Since the Second World War no part of the world has been troubled by wars more than the Middle East. One of the first United Nations peacekeeping operations was an observer mission set up in 1948, after the first Arab-Israeli war. Observers monitored the ceasefire lines between Israel and its neighbours Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, while Mixed Armistice Commissions adjudicated on border violations by either side.
The Australian Army has sent military observers to the Middle East continuously since 1956. Observers generally spend several days on an isolated observation post, accompanied by an observer of a different nationality. Viewing the demarcation lines with binoculars, driving out on patrol, or talking to the local people, they provide the United Nations with reliable and impartial information.
The RAAF has also been involved in the Middle East, flying Iroquois helicopters in the Sinai, first with a United Nations operation in the 1970s, and then in the 1980s with a US-led force. The helicopters were used to transport supplies and personnel, but a key role was to fly observers over the large areas of desert they needed to keep under surveillance.
Iroquois helicopters coming in to land at El Gorah in the Sinai, 1984. Australia and New Zealand provided a unit to a non-UN force monitoring Egypt and Israel's adherence to the Camp David accords.
Captain Peter McCarthy
The Middle East has long been a dangerous place. In 1958 one of Australia's first observers in the area found himself on Mt Scopus in Jerusalem, crawling forward under fire in a vain attempt to reach the body of the Canadian chairman of the local Mixed Armistice Commission who had just been killed by a Jordanian sniper.
Thirty years later, on 12 January 1988, Captain Peter McCarthy was on patrol with a Canadian observer in southern Lebanon. Driving down from a hill overlooking the Mediterranean, with good views north and south over the troubled area, their jeep hit a landmine. McCarthy was killed, and the Canadian seriously injured.
Captain John Robbs, Royal Australian Infantry, with a snowman at Observation Post no. 31 of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO).