November 8th, 1998
Captain Eric Lacasse, CD
Hebrew Scripture Reading: Micah 4:1-5
Gospel Reading: Matthew 5:1-9
Today is the Remembrance Day Service. November the 11th is the day to commemorate the memory of the soldiers of the "Great War", which ended 80 years ago. Nowadays, we also commemorate soldiers of the Second World War, Soldiers of the Korean conflict, and the new breed of veterans - the Peacekeepers, and the Peacemakers.
Who are these Peacekeepers/Peacemakers?
At the front line are the soldiers, the Peacekeepers. In the second line are the spouses, children, parents, grand-parents, and friends of these soldiers; Peacemakers in their own way by providing direct support to the Peacekeepers. In the third line are the communities; the communities who support the Peacekeepers’ efforts by organizing the sponsorship of orphanages in Rwanda, or simply by providing financial support to humanitarian organisations like the Red Cross. True Peacemakers they are, because without them there would be no food to distribute, like in Somalia, no needed supplies to rebuild countries and no teddy bears to give to children in Rwanda. There would be nobody to tell them that peace is better than war.
From the Peacemaker at home to the Peacekeeper deployed in a foreign country, there is a very important link, a critical link.
As one of the Peacekeepers who worked in Somalia, I have seen the devastation of civil war. I have climbed on mountains of grain that had not been distributed because warlords would not authorize it. I have visited hospitals where wounded men, women, and children could not be cared for because warlords would not allow it.
Somalia was a peace-enforcing mission. Show of force was the only language the warlords understood. The task of protecting humanitarian assistance was achieved. The task of restoring and maintaining order and stability was achieved in the Canadian sector.
For the Canadian soldier it was a very stressful mission. Not knowing when, where, and from which direction danger would strike. Always wondering if they would get the bullet; or if you would be the one that had to extract the steering wheel from the driver’s stomach, who had hit a landmine; or more simply die in a vehicle accident far from your loved ones.
Yes, there was real danger in Somalia, like in war movies: heavy machine-guns, mines, mortars, tanks, artillery; everything was there. It did not stop Peacekeepers from enabling freedom of movement to humanitarian organizations, so they could distribute food and give treatment to the ill and wounded. As well, the Peacekeepers rebuilt schools, destroyed landmines, and taught Somalians how to destroy these mines.
Yes! An unfortunate incident occurred in the Canadian compound: an unfortunate incident that cost the life of a Somalian teenager. An incident that should never have happened, but it did. The trust between the Peacekeepers overseas and the Peacemakers at home broke. The chain broke, an internal devastation was awaiting the soldier upon his or her return home. A devastation that is yet to be healed, in some case, An emptiness in the heart that can neither be filled by all the sweat of all the good work that has been done, nor by the memory of all those young Somalians saying, "Canada is a great country!" "Canadian soldiers are good, very good!" A devastation that has left a deep scars.
Rwanda was a peacekeeping mission, where our presence alone was enough to end the civil war. Had the UN Security Council acted faster, many more lives would have been saved. Once the civil war ended, the Peacekeepers concentrated their efforts at rebuilding the country. Within five months, the country was back to life. Peace was re-installed, hospitals were re-opened, mines were destroyed, and children were cared for in orphanages. Water and electricity were re-established. (We all know the importance of these two commodities since the ice storm.)
The Peacemakers at home provided the (relief) supplies to the Peacekeepers and humanitarian organizations, and together they made a tremendous difference for the victims of the war. Rwanda was a very successful mission. Yes! There was stress in Rwanda. A stress that the soldiers could bear because of all the good work that was achieved and the support provided by the peacemakers at home. Two months within the deployment, one of my tasks was to escort the liaison visit team from NDHQ Ottawa for five days. After three days, the liaison team leader mentioned to me that we had it pretty good. I brought the team to a massacre site, a chapel were all the corpses had not been buried yet. Once they saw men, women, children, and babies that had been massacred with machetes, they clearly had a taste of the stress we were living with.
Peacekeeping operations are very demanding on soldiers; it puts them directly in the service of peace. Canadian soldiers are among the best peacekeepers, if not the best in the world. However, Soldiers cannot succeed in this endeavour if the Peacemakers at home don’t support them. Let’s hope that the Peacekeeper-Peacemaker chain never gets challenged again, so Canadians, together, continue to build a better world.
