The forgotten missions

The Canadian Forces currently has just under 2,700 personnel deployed on missions outside our own borders. Almost 2,600 of them are in Afghanistan. Like it or not, that means if you're one of the soldiers working on a mission anywhere else in the world, you're the ignored middle-child of the country's military.

This came into sharp focus with the Op Augural pay fiasco that came to light this past Christmas season - a fiasco that has yet to be resolved, as promised by the MND's office, by the way. How'd you like to be barrelling headlong towards the tax filing deadline with the potential of $9,000 in back taxes hanging over your head?

The idea that 'if it's not happening in Afghanistan, it's not news' isn't just whining, either. How else would you explain the fact that Canadian soldiers were caught in some fairly hairy firefights last week and only one news organization reported on it, other than to point to the fact that the battles happened in Kinshasa instead of Kandahar? Good on Bruce Campion-Smith at The Toronto Star for reporting on this incident:

A group of Canadian soldiers came under fire as they helped evacuate schoolchildren and civilians to safety during recent bitter clashes in Congo.

Six Canadians deployed in the country's capital of Kinshasa as part of a United Nations mission, found themselves facing a barrage of bullets, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades when tensions boiled over last Thursday.

"When the shooting started, we were right in the middle," Lt.-Col. Paul Langlais said in a telephone interview from the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital yesterday.

The violence sparked a dramatic change in duties for the Canadians serving as staff officers in the UN headquarters for a force of 18,000 peacekeepers in the central African country.

"Bullets were flying everywhere, people were shooting mortars and (rocket-propelled grenades) at the vehicles on the streets around us," said Langlais. "It was tense."

Further evidence of this tendency to ignore all but the Afghan mission comes in the all-but-invisible announcement yesterday that Op Boreas is coming to a close, leaving only the eight CF personnel assigned to Op Bronze as a Canadian military presence in the Balkans.

Since December 2004, the Canadian contribution to EUFOR has comprised a CF Liaison and Observation Team (LOT). The primary task of the LOT has been to provide information and situational awareness to EUFOR by maintaining close contact with local authorities, including mayors, police forces, border patrols, community leaders and Bosnian Army Units. The LOT has also assisted in supporting the rule of law in general, most notably, preventing smuggling and the collecting of illegal weapons for destruction.

“Canadians can be proud of the role Canadian Forces personnel have played in helping bring peace and stability in the Balkan region,” said Lieutenant-General Michel Gauthier, Commander, Canadian Expeditionary Force Command. “The presence of Canadians and the tangible contribution they have made on this mission over the last three years has undoubtedly helped the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina focus on rebuilding their communities shattered by over a decade of war,” he added.

As with all international operations, the Government of Canada reviews its commitments abroad on a regular basis. The decision to terminate Operation BOREAS, which most recently has consisted of 11 CF members, coincides with an overall draw down of EUFOR personnel that is taking place due to the relative stability in the Balkan region.

A couple of generations of CF leadership cut their teeth on the Balkans missions: over the past fifteen years, more than 40,000 Canadians have served in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Twenty three of them died there.

And the reduction of forces in the area to a single-digit number doesn't even merit a single story in the mainstream press.

Don't get me wrong: I don't object to the CF's focus on Afghanistan from a mission-oriented perspective. General Hillier's rationale for concentration rather than diffusion of effort makes very good sense:

"Parcelling out small parts of the Canadian Forces in many missions worldwide achieved little, beside making us feel good that we were contributing in many places," he said in response to readers' questions about possible Canadian involvement with an international force proposed for the Darfur conflict in Sudan.

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When this happened in the past, he said, "we did not have any significant effect; the resource cost is always far more for many geographically separate missions than it is for one or two large ones. The stress on people and families increase as deployments are more frequent. We did not have the opportunity to truly influence the missions in accordance with Canadian interests."

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"If we only have a hundred troops in a mission where others have thousands, we are not invited to the table where long-term decisions are made," Gen. Hiller said. It's far better "to go bigger, and get real effect on the ground and a seat at the table."

But that doesn't mean the lack of attention is fair to the soldiers working on projects other than the Afghan one.

For the record, Canadian Forces members are serving in the following overseas missions not connected to Afghanistan:

• Op Iolaus: United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) - Iraq - 1 pers


• Op Hamlet: United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti Headquarters (MINUSTAH HQ) - Haiti - 4 pers


• Op Gladius: United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) - Golan Heights - 2 pers


• Op Calumet: Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) - Sinai - 28 pers


• Op Jade: UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) - Jerusalem - 7 pers


• Op Proteus: Office of the United States Security Coordinator (USSC) - Jerusalem - 3 pers


• Op Snowgoose: UN Forces in Cyprus (UNFICYP) - Cyprus - 1 pers


• Op Crocodile: UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) - Democratic Republic of the Congo - 9 pers


• Op Safari: United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) - Sudan - 33 pers


• Op Augural: Darfur: Western Sudan (African Union) - Sudan - 12 pers


• Op Sculpture: International Military Advisory Training Team (IMATT) - Sierra Leone - 11 pers

And of course, Op Bronze, with eight soldiers in the Balkans.

Let's not forget them.