LEBANON:Camp Ida is beginning to take shape as a UN base, writes Michael Jansen, in Ibl al-Saqi, South Lebanon
Camp Ida sprawls among young olive trees on a green hill west of the purple mass of Mount Hermon and the Golan Heights. An Israeli observation post gleams white on a distant peak. On the summit of a nearer mountain lies the town of Shebaa, whose 14 farms on the slopes of Hermon, occupied by Israel in 1967, are at the heart of the lingering territorial dispute between Lebanon and the Jewish state.
To the south is the devastated hill town of Khiam, the site of some of the most bitter fighting between Hizbullah defenders and Israeli invaders during the 34-day July-August conflict; to the west the picturesque regional capital of Merjayoun.
The sun is high, the sky a soft blue laced with thin white cloud, the air clear, cold and clean. Once they saw this spectacular setting, the Finnish-Irish advance team chose an olive hill over a banana plantation near the coastal city of Tyre.
The camp, named after the daughter of Lieut Col Osmo Toivanen, commander of the Finn-Irish Battalion, is a hive of activity.
Bucketloaders, backhoes and bulldozers set about domestic tasks, extending the platform by flattening the red earth and laying fresh white gravel and drainage pipes. White SUVs, armoured personnel carriers and more heavy construction machines circulate or settle in designated parking lots.
Mini-recce vehicles, the sports version of armoured scout cars driven by Irish soldiers, await orders to accompany Finnish teams clearing sites for camps for the Malaysian and Indonesian contingents, newcomers to South Lebanon.
The new dining hall, a super-tent, was inaugurated on Wednesday night in honour of Finland's national day.
Greyish-white Turkish prefabs to replace the winterised tents accommodating the troops are being unpacked and erected in stages. Offices were installed in Finnish prefabs in dark green.
As the camp takes shape, amenities arrive by ship. Stout for the Irish and a wooden sauna for the Finns are expected by Christmas. A decorated fir tree lurks somewhere in one of the tents. More are certain to sprout for the Finnish Christmas Eve and Irish Christmas Day festivities.
Lieut Col Billy Harrington, deputy commander of the battalion and commander of the Irish contingent of 257, says the bi-national Finn-Irish Battalion, classified as a force asset, is "tasked only by headquarters" at Naquora.
The battalion consists of a Finn-Irish headquarters and a joint logistics company, an Irish mechanised company and Finnish engineers. The common language is English.
While the Irish are professional soldiers, 75 per cent of the 205 Finns are reserves who are specialists in particular fields of construction. They clear the land, prepare infrastructure, erect shelters and maintain sites.
There are 22 women in the battalion - 16 Irish and six Finns. Sixty of the Irish and 20 Finns have served in Lebanon before.
This is Col Harrington's fourth tour here; his first was in 1979 with Fourth Irishbatt.
The battalion also provides employment for dozens of Lebanese and buys some of its supplies from local provisioners, boosting commerce in the area.
Farmers also receive rent for their land, which is at a premium for the expanded force.
In early October, after intensive consultations, Ireland and Finland, long-standing contributors to the original UN Interim Force (Unifil), decided to combine forces.
Ireland rushed troops to the area in 1978 after an Israeli incursion, and Finland sent soldiers in 1982 following Israel's invasion and occupation of the southern half of the country.
Both pulled out in 2001 when Israel withdrew from all but the Shebaa farms. Col Harrington observes: "We had to look very seriously at what we could contribute" to the new Unifil, dubbed Unifil II.
"The Finns proposed engineers, we offered protection. But this is not open-ended. We're committed to develop Unifil sites for other forces. We will see where we are after 12 months."
Kosovo was the proving ground for multinational brigades containing troops from half a dozen countries. "The idea was not popular a few years ago," he says. But the practice seems to suit peacekeeping because it enables countries to contribute without overstretching their capabilities.
The work at the olive hill began with the clearing of unexploded ordnance by huge mine- sweeping machines called flails, sniffer dogs, and men in armour armed with detection devices. "At all of the sites we have found something," the colonel says.
UN experts estimate that Israel fired tens of thousands of shells and more than a million cluster bombs into southern Lebanon during the summer. Until this is cleared the region cannot rebuild, farmers cannot tend their crops in safety, children are not free to play in gardens or fields.
"Unifil II is very different from Unifil I. It is more robust." Its mission is to assist the Lebanese army in reestablishing Lebanese sovereignty between the "blue line" border with Israel and the Litani river and to ensure that armed elements are excluded from this area.
At present there are 8,961 troops from 22 nations in the force. This should rise to 10,500 by the end of the year, a five-fold increase over Unifil I.
Unifil II is divided into two territorial sectors - east and west.
Spainbatt is in charge of the eastern sector, where Indian and Nepalese as well as Indonesian, Malaysian, Irish and Finnish troops are deployed.
During previous postings to South Lebanon, full-strength Irish and Finnish battalions ran clinics and built facilities for communities in their areas of operations. Col Harrington says the joint force has not yet decided what to do - perhaps football fields for village boys.
The vet accompanying the sniffer and guard dogs could also give a hand to Indbatt's vet, Lieut Col Bapu Parasanalli. As the only vet south of the Litani, he is the "most wanted man" in Unifil. Desperately poor farmers who lost half their livestock during the summer conflict cannot afford to call private vets to treat their cattle, sheep, chickens and dogs.
Once Camp Ida is in order, the hardworking Finn-Irish Batt will find ways to help Lebanese civilians recover from the conflict.