Feature - Peacekeepers winning hearts and minds

They gather before daylight, the sick and infirm - desperate for medical treatment. Some have waited overnight, many for at least five hours, to see Major Upansna Thakur - a doctor who devotes much of her time to helping the sick. She is a new weapon in the UN's peacekeeping arsenal - one that wins the hearts and minds of the local population and helps gain vital support for peacekeeping work. QUICK IMPACT PROJECTS Major Upansna - who works with the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) which monitors the ceasefire between the two countries following their 1998-2000 border war - is implementing a so-called quick impact project. Its success is illustrated by the queue several hundred yards long, snaking around the sandbags that protect the entrance of the military HQ of the Indian peacekeepers in Adigrat, a border town in northern Ethiopia. Major Upansna's reputation - she is nicknamed Mariam after an Ethiopian saint - clearly shows how the battle for hearts and minds has already been won. The 35-year-old, who has been in the army for nine years - she has another 11 before she completes her service - says the numbers needing help shocked her. "The previous battalion had done this so I had an idea about the civilians' health and I was prepared, but I didn't expect such a big amount of patients coming to me," she said. "In the army we normally do not get many diseases because people are generally healthy. But here, because the people are very poor, we tend to get patients with skin diseases," added Major Upansna who has two children back in India. "We see a lot of patients with gastroenteritis and worms," she said. "We also see respiratory infections, eye infections and malnutrition. We find a lot of children who are malnourished possibly because of the war and drought." Major Upansna, who has been working in Adigrat since last July, treats around 200-300 patients on each of the three days the clinic is open. The unit also works closely with local health centres and provides health training so that communities can cope once the peacekeeping force pulls out after border demarcation. HELPING THE POOR But even so, medical treatment in Ethiopia can prove desperately expensive for the poor. Freweyni Welderfael, 22, is one of Major Upansna's patients. She has waited six hours so that her sick one-year-old daughter Millian can receive free treatment. "I cannot afford the drugs for my child," says the mother. "This doctor is very good. Without her I don't know what I would do, maybe I would have to beg for some money to get medicines but that would take many days." But UN peacekeepers have not just focused on treating the sick. Since arriving the Indian RajPut Regiment has repaired 160 km of road, installed water pipes and provided computer training to over 100 people - including local officials. Colonel S Bhattacharaya, the commanding officer from the 27th Rajput Battalion Group, stressed the importance of projects such as those run by Major Upansna. He said the unit, which numbers around 1,500 men and women, has three doctors, ten paramedics and treats around 5,000 patients a month. Wells that have been provided by the troops are now providing almost half a million litres of water per month - vital in such dry, inhospitable areas along the border region. The quick impact projects - which fall under Civil Military Coordination (CIMIC) - have also attracted attention from international donors and governments such as Norway, the Netherlands and Ireland. WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS UN Force Commander Major General Robert Gordon says that traditionally, helping local populations was carried out on an "ad hoc" basis at contingent level. Now, he added, it is seen as a "key contributor" to ensuring the success of a peacekeeping mission. "Part of the campaign is to win the hearts and minds of the local population in order to achieve consent for the peacekeeping mission, and we do it by civil military operations," he said. The scheme also plays an important part in ensuring that communities devastated by war get their lives back to normal, ensuring a lasting peace.