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Diaries of a Chinese peacekeeper
Before the peace treaty was signed in Rome in 1992, Mozambique had
been embroiled in civil war for 15 years since its independence in
1975. War-wrecked people were thirsty for peace and rebuilt their
homeland in this southeastern African country. The United Nations
sent about 6,000 peacekeepers and more than 300 military observers
to Mozambique to supervise the execution of the peace treaty and the
general election.
Ten officers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) served as military
observers in that peacekeeping operation. Among them is Jia Yongxing.
Here, Jia shares with all the PLA Daily's readers his diary he took
during that period.
July 1, 1993 Sunny
I set off from the Capital Airport in Beijing on June 29 together
with other peacekeepers, and on our way to Maputo I saw the beautiful
night scene of Karachi and had a bird's eye view of Paris and the
Mediterranean. But the scenes, which attracted me most, were all
in Africa, vast arid desert and the winding Nile River. After I
got off the plane, I saw a country torn by years of war. Ruins are
everywhere. I was really sad to see those famished people, naked
children and their disabled parents. What can we do for them?
July 3, 1993 Sunny
The UN Officials in Mozambique gave each of us a guaranty and a
series of forms. Besides the personal information, the forms also
required to fill in names of your family members and addresses. In
the guaranty it read, "As a UN military observer, the UN's will is
your will. You have to obey the rules and command, and ready to sacrifice
your life for world peace." Everyone was reading carefully the words
on the guaranty. At that moment I thought of my mother and my little
son. I signed my name in English on the guaranty. One of the observers
said jokingly, " Well, we have just signed a life-death contract".
October 10, 1993 Cloudy
"Mine never be mine," We prayed again and again. Mozambique has
become a huge minefield since the start of the civil war. About
two million mines were laid around the cities, on highways, up on
the bridges and down in the rivers. Two UN engineering companies
are tasked to sweep these mines. According to the present speed,
it would take them 20 years to complete the task, someone said.
But something miraculous happened this morning. I was with three
observers from Brazil, Cape Verde and Botswana in two cars to our
patrol region. I was driving in the front car, and ahead of me was
a wooden bridge laid across a dry riverbed. It looked as if it was
not quite strong, but I managed to drive across it anyway. But after
a while I found that the second car was not behind me! I hurried back
to the bridge and found the observer from Cape Verde was running towards
the riverbank, gasping for breath. He told me he had chosen to drive
across the riverbed since the bridge didn't look strong enough. However
they touched off a mine right under the bridge. The mine was triggered,
but didn't blow up for some reason. That's really a miracle! Perhaps
the second fuse was disabled. Or maybe this mine had eyes so that
it could recognize the Blue Berets. |
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