LT COL Boggs stands next to a wall painting of President Assa
1 November 2007
By United Nations Military Observer, LT COL Matt Boggs
I’m standing under Mount Hermon, in Majdal Shams. 400 metres to the west is the ‘Shouting Place’ and beyond that is the village of Hadar. Both are part of the Druze community.
During the 1973 Yom Kippur/Ramadan War they were cut in two by an Area of Separation, a formal disengagement line between Israel and Syria. These days, Majdal Shams is in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Hadar in Syria. The ‘Shouting Place’ is literally the side of a hill where families can stand and shout back and forth between the villages, once the only form of communication they had.
It was in Majdal Shams that I met Azam. He was born in Hadar in 1973. In October that year he went to stay with his Uncle and Aunt. He explained that after the war finished he found himself on the wrong side of the Area of Separation as a six month old child, separated from his parents, brother and two sisters. Azam finishes this story in broken English and I see tears start to well up in his eyes.
To facilitate my work, I can use a military crossing point, known as the A/B Gate to travel between Syria and Israel. For Azam to visit his family, he must travel to Jordan.
It was during the 1967 Six Day War that Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria and it has been in dispute ever since. The 1974 Agreement of Disengagement saw the establishment of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) and the establishment of the Area of Separation. This is essentially a demilitarised zone that starts on the top of Mount Hermon and stretches approximately 75km to the south to the Syria, Israel, Jordan border junction.
I work as a United Nations Military Observer (UNMO), a member of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO). We have an outstation on the Golan known as the Observer Group Golan and we comprise about 75 military staff and civilian support personnel. I am in the Observer Group Golan-Damascus (OGG-D), responsible for the continuous staffing of five observation posts that overlook the Area of Separation (AOS).
My team, Team Citadel, operates in the northern mountainous section of the Golan Heights and is responsible for Observation Posts as well as 800sq km of Syrian territory.
On the Israeli side of the Area of Separation is the Observer Group Golan – Tiberias, who perform a similar function monitoring the Israeli side. As an UNMO, I am responsible for observing and reporting activities that are or could lead to a violation of the 1974 Agreement. In order to achieve this, UNMOs perform three key functions – manning Observation Posts 24/7, formal inspections of Israeli and Syrian military positions within a 25km radius of the Area of Separation and conducting patrols throughout the Golan to observe and monitor the host nation military forces.
UNSTO has an open ended mandate that does not require the UN Security Council to renew, unlike most other UN missions.
I will serve 12 months here before being replaced by another Kiwi. Future UNMOs will remain until a final peace settlement is signed between the two countries. Hopefully one day Azam will be able to take his children to visit their Grandparents in Hadar. It’s only 2 kilometres from his house, yet it is currently a world away.
Ends
LT COL Boggs has also written a full and informative article about the history of the UN in the Middle East at our Features Section called NZDF in the Middle East.