Mission with unifil : an african soldier's reflections

UNIFIL - hemmed into a small area of South Lebanon amid fiercely conflicting forces - is the UN's most difficult peace- keeping operation since the Congo, and General Erskine is recognised as having shown outstanding leadership and resil- ience as its commander. In this book he comments on his international service with great frankness. UNIFIL's day-to-day act- ivities and hazards are described, together with his constant contacts with UN head- quarters, with the Israeli army and govern- ment, with the late Major Saad Haddad's Israeli-protected 'De Facto Forces', with the neighbouring Arab states and the PLO, and with the various countries from around the world that have participated in UNIFIL. He gives special emphasis to the humanitarian work which he considered an integral part of his mission. A chapter is devoted to the Ghanaian army's participa- tion in UNIFIL ever since the force was established. The reader is given a refreshing examina - tion of the political realities surrounding UN operations in the Arab world, and of the possibilities for breaking the impasse. The author also gives, by description and implication, a wide-ranging analysis of the new military science of peacekeeping. Sir Brian Urquhart, who has written the Foreword, was Under Secretary-General of the UN for Political Affairs, 1974-86, with special responsibility for peacekeeping.