Peacekeepers help reconstruction efforts

United Nations peacekeepers deployed to monitor the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) between Ethiopia and Eritrea are volunteering their skills and resources to help restore normal civilian life in an area still recovering from the bitter conflict between the two countries. An article released on Tuesday by the public information office of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), describes the reconstruction of an elementary school in the Eritrean town of Senafe by the Canadian contingent to UNMEE prior to their recent departure from the mission area. Senafe, an important town on the main road linking the capitals of the two former warring states, found itself on the front line during the latter phase of the conflict and suffered considerable damage. Working with local people, the peacekeepers turned the school into the first major postwar reconstruction effort in the town. "The roof was coming down, shutters were torn, the desks didn’t have table-tops," said Captain Laura Oberwarth, a member of UNMEE's joint Canadian-Netherlands battalion deployed to the central sector of the TSZ for the initial six months of the peacekeeping operation, "so the engineers got together. It took them about 10 days to put it all together, working with people from the area." Canadian Captain Neil Marshal, who organised the project, explained it was a team effort from the start with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) providing funding, and Canadian peacekeeping forces, the logistics and engineering support. Local people provided their labour freely, while desks were donated by an Eritrean school. Some 800 children are expected to attend the school, a number that will increase when all internally displaced families return to the area. The active participation of UN peacekeeping forces in rebuilding a normal life for civilians caught up in conflict was one of the key recommendations of the August 2000 Brahimi report on UN peacekeeping reform. UNMEE is also the first UN peacekeeping operation to possess a fully integrated capacity to fund and - if necessary - implement "quick-impact" projects designed to assist communities in recovering from the effects of conflict. So far, UNMEE has approved more than thirty projects in both Eritrea and Ethiopia worth US $341,000, including the rehabilitation of water systems, school latrines, school desks, and the provision of non-medical equipment for health centres and sports equipment for schools.