Trust. Faith. Seeing the other side of the war and giving your perceived enemy a chance to prove themselves right and you wrong. How many people out there, yourself included, can claim or would even put yourself in harm's way, at someone's word that they would protect you when the entire world paints them as evil? That is exactly what our 45 Fijian peacekeepers did in the Golan Heights. Their actions have brought about ridicule, racist taunts, reopened Pandora's box to Fiji's political history and inadvertently lent some bigger nations a bat to swing at Fiji. But, they missed, and spectacularly at that, because they view the world with one eye and it is sadly, the Western eye.
Even as I begin this post, I already know it's not going to be a short one and that, it will raise hairs on some people. It's also been a long time since I last blogged and so, what better way to return to blogging than by celebrating the release of our Fijian peacekeepers?
Let's start off with a little background first. Fiji. A small nation of nine hundred thousand people and the largest contingent of UN Peacekeeping soldiers in comparison to its population. A tiny country with a troubled history of racially motivated coups, corrupt leaders, bullying big brother countries,and ... that's where it stops. Big friendly I-Taukei (the natives), hard working Indians, enterprising Chinese, the regal Lauans, the laughing Rotumans, the quiet Muslims, the local expats, and all the other Pacific Islanders who live there for the greater part, in peace and harmony. We are all Fijians and like any other country, we are not without our little problems, a fact that so many other countries prefer to ignore (to suit their agendas). What irks me the most however, is that they choose to ignore the strongest part of our 'Fijian-ness', and that is our togetherness. It is something that cannot be found anywhere else.
The I-Taukei, Indians, Chinese, Muslims, Europeans and other minorities in Fiji cannot live without each other. Our laid back lifestyle, our dependence on each other's food (only Fijians will understand that we have the best curries, Chinese food, lovos in the world), our cultures which have invariably become intertwined, the jokes we share, the stories we tell, the religious festivities we celebrate, our nation's pride in our athletes and rugby teams, we are just one big family of bickering brothers and sisters. When Diwali comes around, every non-Indian makes sure someone is home with myriads of containers to receive the sweets we've come to expect from our friends and neighbours. Eid is no different - it is the time when we go knocking on our Muslim neighbours' doors to partake in all that yummy goodness that's served. Chinese New Year has everyone rushing to the streets to enjoy the lion dances and firecrackers before going in search of pork and chicken buns. And then there's Christmas. Everyone celebrates it, regardless if they are Christian or not. Someone reading this post might think it's all about food, but it isn't. The point is, we know who's a Patel, Singh, Khan, Mohammed, Ratu, Ah-Koy, Dewant, Ralifo, Kafoa, Autar, Bupen, etc. We know who's a Gujarati, Sikh, Brahmin,Muslim, Hindhu, I-Taukei, chiefly I-Taukei, Rotuman,Chinese, Samoan and we are intimately connected with each other's values and beliefs. And to be honest, I've not seen this anywhere else in the world.
I've lived in England for six years and during my time there, I was baffled at how the English could not differentiate between different Asians. This doesn't apply to everyone of course and I am generalizing, but I'm also stating my own observations. It hurt my sensibilities to see them lumping every person as a Muslim or 'Paki', not recognising who was Indian and who wasn't. The irony is, Britain colonized India and yet her people knew nothing of the Indian culture and caste system despite the fact that they've been living together for centuries. The argument that the immigrant populace should have better integrated is void because from what I could see, they all spoke perfect English, wore Westernized clothing, attended British schools, ate Western food and understood Western culture. The status quo did not change - instead, it remained 'I the conqueror, you the conquered.' Then, 11.09. 2001 came along and everything went downhill from there. I'm not picking on England here, merely stating an observation that confused me. I've also witnessed the same in other countries.
When 45 Fijian peacekeepers were captured in the Golan Heights by Al-Qaeda linked rebels, the whole nation plunged into shock, immediately followed by concern and prayers for their safety. At the same time there was this widespread belief that our boys would make it out okay. "Why?" some non-Fijians asked. Good question, and the answer is not something that can be explained in a single, short paragraph or two even, but I will try my best to shed some light. The shortest answer is, "Because they are Fijians." More specifically, they are I-Taukei and the I-Taukei are wonderfully unique in so many ways. Mind you, I'm not saying they are perfect but from this point on, I'm only going to focus on why they are unique (in a good way).
1. The I-Taukei are big, loving and happy people.
2. Their smiles are beautiful and warm you up inside.
3. Everything is cool with them.
4. We are all family.
5. They respect their elders and treat tradition and culture seriously.
6. They generally dislike conflict and are the first to step in to break things up when there's a scuffle followed by a speech that we are all brothers and sisters.
7. Everything is simple with them.
8. They are trusting. Very, very trusting.
9. They love to sing. If you haven't heard a group of I-Taukei singing, then you should!
10. They eat all your food and are banned from certain restaurants around the world. (Sorry, but I couldn't resist listing this as a positive unique quality!).
11. They love children and are extremely protective over them.
12. They love to sleep and they love to run. A contradiction, I know.
13. They always have a leader somewhere.
14. They love their yaqona, a traditional drink made from grounded roots.
15. They love posing for the camera.
16. They are the friendliest people on earth!
17. Something about them is so lovable that even the British failed to properly colonize them. Instead, they brought indentured labourers from India to do the hard work. History lessons tell us it was done to protect the I-Taukei way of life.
Our peacekeepers embody all of the one to seventeen qualities I mentioned above.
That's all I can think of for now. When our peacekeepers were captured by Al-Nusra, a rebel group linked to Al-Qaeda, the world received so many conflicting reports over what led to their capture. Here are some of them in a nutshell:
1. They were captured because the UN did nothing to aid the victims of the Syrian war.
2. Our peacekeepers were helping the wounded of their enemies.
3. The Commander of our peacekeeping force, another national from India, ordered our peacekeepers to surrender.
4. The Al-Nusra rebels worried for the Fijian peacekeepers' safety and relocated them to a safer place.
Then later, Al-Nusra demanded three things in exchange for their release:
1. To be removed from the UN's list of terrorist organizations
2. To be provided with medical aid
3. To receive compensation for the death of three of their men.
The world (that knew about it) derided the Fijians as cowards and being unworthy of soldiers. The Filipinos (72 Filipino peacekeepers fought off the rebels, disobeying a direct command from their commander and escaped to the Israeli border with the help of the Syrians and Israelis) mocked the Fijians, saying they should never have given up their arms. Australia finally had its chance to play the big brother and promised to help the peacekeepers in any way they could, yet couldn't resist barbed remarks about Fijians only being in the UN Peacekeeping forces for the money, and that it was time to rethink their role in the UN. Bear in mind, Australia along with New Zealand, had appealed several times to the UN to remove Fijian soldiers from peacekeeping duties in 2006 following the coup and continued their lobbying in 2009. The secretary general for the UN responded with, "[t]he United Nations is grateful for the service provided by Fijian personnel to UN peacekeeping operations over many years and for the Fijian personnel currently serving in dangerous UN assignments, including in Iraq".
"Following lobbying from New Zealand and Australia, the United Nations announced that it would "continue to use Fijian police and soldiers in its current peacekeeping missions, but [would] not increase their numbers in future deployments." And in 2010, Fijians are the only blue helmets stationed in Iraq since 2004 with a contingent of 221 soldiers.
The whole world's natural response to any kind of threat is to fight. Fight. With all our preconceptions of the Islamic world, especially of the middle east, we scream 'fight'.It is tantamount to shouting, "UN peacekeepers, you are not there to keep the peace. You must kill!" As soldiers, you are trained to execute the orders of your commander without question. Suddenly our peacekeepers are being told they should have disobeyed the order to surrender. No, our boys didn't and it was the gutsiest thing they ever had to do. Whether or not they believed their commander was right, in the end, they understood what they were facing. And don't let anyone accuse them of being dumb either. They laid down their weapons and put their faith in their commander, in the promise that the al-Nusra rebels made to them, and in the Lord. The latter not because I'm religious, but the I-Taukei are. Faith is their strength. And they got captured. All 45 of them. Some of you may laugh, but at that time and in that place, no one died.
Then came the fear mongering which was expected because all, if not most of us, were thinking it. Was this al-Nusra Front group similar to ISIS/ISIL in terms of public brutality? Would our boys face the same fate as the Iraqis, Yazidis, Kurdish and Syrians who had confronted ISIS? For a small country like Fiji, the differences between factions, groups, and parties in the Middle East are difficult to comprehend and our knowledge (of them) runs skin deep. Our soldiers aside, we pretty much live in blissful ignorance. Whispers in our community screamed of beheading, old and bitter politicians tried to revive racial tension in hopes to win the race vote,completely disregarding the families of those peacekeepers. But through all that, I had faith that our boys would be all right.
During their capture, a friend asked me if I thought they would be okay. I jokingly replied, "They are probably singing and making friends with their captors." She, a German national, threw me a puzzled look so I hastened to explain my feelings. "I just can't believe anyone could bring themselves to coldly kill a Fijian once you've seen them smile." Only later would she understand me. Already there were 'jokes' going around the internet that our peacekeepers were eating their captors out of food and money and soon they'd be kicked out. Some teased that it is impossible to stick around a Fijian if they haven't showered in more than 2 days (sadly, this is true. We Fijians need to shower at least twice a day everyday!). I did worry though, that if the situation worsened for our peacekeepers, what could we, as a nation do? We are not rich so we can't afford a ransom and we have no voice on the international circuit. Basically our boys were and for a long time to come, will be without help from their own country. Each time they head out, they know that if anything happens to them, there is little we can do to help other than to offer our prayers and well wishes, and appeal to some other country to negotiate on our behalf. Since 2004, we have lost 35 soldiers in the line of duty.
Almost 2 weeks after they were captured, al-Nusra released our peacekeepers without any demands or concessions. A miracle? Yes and no. Yes, because 45 captured soldiers at any one time is not a small number and to be freed after 2 harrowing weeks, all in good health and looking happy, is a miracle in itself. No, because our boys were just being themselves. They kept their cool and behaved with such discipline that even their captors must have felt a tinge of respect or dare I say, possibly awe at a different calibre of men they were seeing. No, because when a member of al-Nusra promised them protection in return for the use of their post to treat their wounded, our peacekeepers trusted he would keep that promise. A contingent from a different country would not have done the same and more than likely, approached the rebels with extreme hostility and understandably so. The Filipinos chose to fight and after 3 days of holding off the rebels, they all managed to escape safely to the Israeli side. Hostility worked for them. In our peacekeepers' case, trust worked for them. After days of miscommunication (terrible thing this!) cleared up, it turned out that a rebel really did promise protection to our boys but there was a mix-up and a different group decided to use them as bargaining chips.
When the person who initially promised them protection discovered this, he had a long discussion with the other leaders to get them to abide by his promise. In the Islamic faith, the promise of protection is a serious thing, not to be treated lightly. A video was released by the rebels explaining the promise and their intention to release our peacekeepers. Then the whole world got to see our boys, waving and smiling and every Fijian knew, they were all right. I had never been more proud of my little country and I actually teared up as I watched that video of them smiling and waving. I also spied 2 naughty Fijian boys playing at the back of the group during the rebels' speeches before they realized what they were doing and then solemnly bowed their heads.
Then the big day came and the rebels dropped off our peacekeepers to the Israeli side of the Golan Heights. Videos were shot of our soldiers shaking hands and then later waving goodbye to the rebels with big smiles on their faces. All was well and both sides each went their own way with smiles on their faces. This is the Fiji way and you would have to be Fijian to understand.
This post is not in any way meant to criticize Western foreign policy in the Middle East. The purpose here was to show that in the Fijian peacekeepers' case, aggression was not their answer and they should not be labelled cowards for that. All 45 of them came out free and happy, and they left al-Nusra on good terms. Food for thought, perhaps?
And before I forget, a big thank you to the UN negotiators and Qatar for playing a crucial role in negotiating our boys' release. Our tiny nation is grateful. Now there are jokes about our peacekeepers suffering Stockholm Syndrome, rebels wanting to settle in Fiji and what not. I'm just glad our boys are safe.
Let's start off with a little background first. Fiji. A small nation of nine hundred thousand people and the largest contingent of UN Peacekeeping soldiers in comparison to its population. A tiny country with a troubled history of racially motivated coups, corrupt leaders, bullying big brother countries,and ... that's where it stops. Big friendly I-Taukei (the natives), hard working Indians, enterprising Chinese, the regal Lauans, the laughing Rotumans, the quiet Muslims, the local expats, and all the other Pacific Islanders who live there for the greater part, in peace and harmony. We are all Fijians and like any other country, we are not without our little problems, a fact that so many other countries prefer to ignore (to suit their agendas). What irks me the most however, is that they choose to ignore the strongest part of our 'Fijian-ness', and that is our togetherness. It is something that cannot be found anywhere else.
The I-Taukei, Indians, Chinese, Muslims, Europeans and other minorities in Fiji cannot live without each other. Our laid back lifestyle, our dependence on each other's food (only Fijians will understand that we have the best curries, Chinese food, lovos in the world), our cultures which have invariably become intertwined, the jokes we share, the stories we tell, the religious festivities we celebrate, our nation's pride in our athletes and rugby teams, we are just one big family of bickering brothers and sisters. When Diwali comes around, every non-Indian makes sure someone is home with myriads of containers to receive the sweets we've come to expect from our friends and neighbours. Eid is no different - it is the time when we go knocking on our Muslim neighbours' doors to partake in all that yummy goodness that's served. Chinese New Year has everyone rushing to the streets to enjoy the lion dances and firecrackers before going in search of pork and chicken buns. And then there's Christmas. Everyone celebrates it, regardless if they are Christian or not. Someone reading this post might think it's all about food, but it isn't. The point is, we know who's a Patel, Singh, Khan, Mohammed, Ratu, Ah-Koy, Dewant, Ralifo, Kafoa, Autar, Bupen, etc. We know who's a Gujarati, Sikh, Brahmin,Muslim, Hindhu, I-Taukei, chiefly I-Taukei, Rotuman,Chinese, Samoan and we are intimately connected with each other's values and beliefs. And to be honest, I've not seen this anywhere else in the world.
I've lived in England for six years and during my time there, I was baffled at how the English could not differentiate between different Asians. This doesn't apply to everyone of course and I am generalizing, but I'm also stating my own observations. It hurt my sensibilities to see them lumping every person as a Muslim or 'Paki', not recognising who was Indian and who wasn't. The irony is, Britain colonized India and yet her people knew nothing of the Indian culture and caste system despite the fact that they've been living together for centuries. The argument that the immigrant populace should have better integrated is void because from what I could see, they all spoke perfect English, wore Westernized clothing, attended British schools, ate Western food and understood Western culture. The status quo did not change - instead, it remained 'I the conqueror, you the conquered.' Then, 11.09. 2001 came along and everything went downhill from there. I'm not picking on England here, merely stating an observation that confused me. I've also witnessed the same in other countries.
When 45 Fijian peacekeepers were captured in the Golan Heights by Al-Qaeda linked rebels, the whole nation plunged into shock, immediately followed by concern and prayers for their safety. At the same time there was this widespread belief that our boys would make it out okay. "Why?" some non-Fijians asked. Good question, and the answer is not something that can be explained in a single, short paragraph or two even, but I will try my best to shed some light. The shortest answer is, "Because they are Fijians." More specifically, they are I-Taukei and the I-Taukei are wonderfully unique in so many ways. Mind you, I'm not saying they are perfect but from this point on, I'm only going to focus on why they are unique (in a good way).
1. The I-Taukei are big, loving and happy people.
2. Their smiles are beautiful and warm you up inside.
3. Everything is cool with them.
4. We are all family.
5. They respect their elders and treat tradition and culture seriously.
6. They generally dislike conflict and are the first to step in to break things up when there's a scuffle followed by a speech that we are all brothers and sisters.
7. Everything is simple with them.
8. They are trusting. Very, very trusting.
9. They love to sing. If you haven't heard a group of I-Taukei singing, then you should!
10. They eat all your food and are banned from certain restaurants around the world. (Sorry, but I couldn't resist listing this as a positive unique quality!).
11. They love children and are extremely protective over them.
12. They love to sleep and they love to run. A contradiction, I know.
13. They always have a leader somewhere.
14. They love their yaqona, a traditional drink made from grounded roots.
15. They love posing for the camera.
16. They are the friendliest people on earth!
17. Something about them is so lovable that even the British failed to properly colonize them. Instead, they brought indentured labourers from India to do the hard work. History lessons tell us it was done to protect the I-Taukei way of life.
Our peacekeepers embody all of the one to seventeen qualities I mentioned above.
That's all I can think of for now. When our peacekeepers were captured by Al-Nusra, a rebel group linked to Al-Qaeda, the world received so many conflicting reports over what led to their capture. Here are some of them in a nutshell:
1. They were captured because the UN did nothing to aid the victims of the Syrian war.
2. Our peacekeepers were helping the wounded of their enemies.
3. The Commander of our peacekeeping force, another national from India, ordered our peacekeepers to surrender.
4. The Al-Nusra rebels worried for the Fijian peacekeepers' safety and relocated them to a safer place.
Then later, Al-Nusra demanded three things in exchange for their release:
1. To be removed from the UN's list of terrorist organizations
2. To be provided with medical aid
3. To receive compensation for the death of three of their men.
The world (that knew about it) derided the Fijians as cowards and being unworthy of soldiers. The Filipinos (72 Filipino peacekeepers fought off the rebels, disobeying a direct command from their commander and escaped to the Israeli border with the help of the Syrians and Israelis) mocked the Fijians, saying they should never have given up their arms. Australia finally had its chance to play the big brother and promised to help the peacekeepers in any way they could, yet couldn't resist barbed remarks about Fijians only being in the UN Peacekeeping forces for the money, and that it was time to rethink their role in the UN. Bear in mind, Australia along with New Zealand, had appealed several times to the UN to remove Fijian soldiers from peacekeeping duties in 2006 following the coup and continued their lobbying in 2009. The secretary general for the UN responded with, "[t]he United Nations is grateful for the service provided by Fijian personnel to UN peacekeeping operations over many years and for the Fijian personnel currently serving in dangerous UN assignments, including in Iraq".
"Following lobbying from New Zealand and Australia, the United Nations announced that it would "continue to use Fijian police and soldiers in its current peacekeeping missions, but [would] not increase their numbers in future deployments." And in 2010, Fijians are the only blue helmets stationed in Iraq since 2004 with a contingent of 221 soldiers.
The whole world's natural response to any kind of threat is to fight. Fight. With all our preconceptions of the Islamic world, especially of the middle east, we scream 'fight'.It is tantamount to shouting, "UN peacekeepers, you are not there to keep the peace. You must kill!" As soldiers, you are trained to execute the orders of your commander without question. Suddenly our peacekeepers are being told they should have disobeyed the order to surrender. No, our boys didn't and it was the gutsiest thing they ever had to do. Whether or not they believed their commander was right, in the end, they understood what they were facing. And don't let anyone accuse them of being dumb either. They laid down their weapons and put their faith in their commander, in the promise that the al-Nusra rebels made to them, and in the Lord. The latter not because I'm religious, but the I-Taukei are. Faith is their strength. And they got captured. All 45 of them. Some of you may laugh, but at that time and in that place, no one died.
Then came the fear mongering which was expected because all, if not most of us, were thinking it. Was this al-Nusra Front group similar to ISIS/ISIL in terms of public brutality? Would our boys face the same fate as the Iraqis, Yazidis, Kurdish and Syrians who had confronted ISIS? For a small country like Fiji, the differences between factions, groups, and parties in the Middle East are difficult to comprehend and our knowledge (of them) runs skin deep. Our soldiers aside, we pretty much live in blissful ignorance. Whispers in our community screamed of beheading, old and bitter politicians tried to revive racial tension in hopes to win the race vote,completely disregarding the families of those peacekeepers. But through all that, I had faith that our boys would be all right.
During their capture, a friend asked me if I thought they would be okay. I jokingly replied, "They are probably singing and making friends with their captors." She, a German national, threw me a puzzled look so I hastened to explain my feelings. "I just can't believe anyone could bring themselves to coldly kill a Fijian once you've seen them smile." Only later would she understand me. Already there were 'jokes' going around the internet that our peacekeepers were eating their captors out of food and money and soon they'd be kicked out. Some teased that it is impossible to stick around a Fijian if they haven't showered in more than 2 days (sadly, this is true. We Fijians need to shower at least twice a day everyday!). I did worry though, that if the situation worsened for our peacekeepers, what could we, as a nation do? We are not rich so we can't afford a ransom and we have no voice on the international circuit. Basically our boys were and for a long time to come, will be without help from their own country. Each time they head out, they know that if anything happens to them, there is little we can do to help other than to offer our prayers and well wishes, and appeal to some other country to negotiate on our behalf. Since 2004, we have lost 35 soldiers in the line of duty.
Almost 2 weeks after they were captured, al-Nusra released our peacekeepers without any demands or concessions. A miracle? Yes and no. Yes, because 45 captured soldiers at any one time is not a small number and to be freed after 2 harrowing weeks, all in good health and looking happy, is a miracle in itself. No, because our boys were just being themselves. They kept their cool and behaved with such discipline that even their captors must have felt a tinge of respect or dare I say, possibly awe at a different calibre of men they were seeing. No, because when a member of al-Nusra promised them protection in return for the use of their post to treat their wounded, our peacekeepers trusted he would keep that promise. A contingent from a different country would not have done the same and more than likely, approached the rebels with extreme hostility and understandably so. The Filipinos chose to fight and after 3 days of holding off the rebels, they all managed to escape safely to the Israeli side. Hostility worked for them. In our peacekeepers' case, trust worked for them. After days of miscommunication (terrible thing this!) cleared up, it turned out that a rebel really did promise protection to our boys but there was a mix-up and a different group decided to use them as bargaining chips.
When the person who initially promised them protection discovered this, he had a long discussion with the other leaders to get them to abide by his promise. In the Islamic faith, the promise of protection is a serious thing, not to be treated lightly. A video was released by the rebels explaining the promise and their intention to release our peacekeepers. Then the whole world got to see our boys, waving and smiling and every Fijian knew, they were all right. I had never been more proud of my little country and I actually teared up as I watched that video of them smiling and waving. I also spied 2 naughty Fijian boys playing at the back of the group during the rebels' speeches before they realized what they were doing and then solemnly bowed their heads.
Then the big day came and the rebels dropped off our peacekeepers to the Israeli side of the Golan Heights. Videos were shot of our soldiers shaking hands and then later waving goodbye to the rebels with big smiles on their faces. All was well and both sides each went their own way with smiles on their faces. This is the Fiji way and you would have to be Fijian to understand.
This post is not in any way meant to criticize Western foreign policy in the Middle East. The purpose here was to show that in the Fijian peacekeepers' case, aggression was not their answer and they should not be labelled cowards for that. All 45 of them came out free and happy, and they left al-Nusra on good terms. Food for thought, perhaps?
And before I forget, a big thank you to the UN negotiators and Qatar for playing a crucial role in negotiating our boys' release. Our tiny nation is grateful. Now there are jokes about our peacekeepers suffering Stockholm Syndrome, rebels wanting to settle in Fiji and what not. I'm just glad our boys are safe.