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Lebanon veteran appeals: give medicine to Lebanese people

Schalkhaar  October 2, 2024     logo oost

Text: © RTV Oost / Teun van der Velden

Almost every day he is in contact with the inhabitants of Lebanon,

Bert Kleine Schaars from Averlo. He is a Lebanon veteran and was part of the group of soldiers deployed to southern Lebanon in the 1980s, as part of the UNIFIL mission. The situation in Lebanon is becoming increasingly dangerous now that Israel has launched a ground offensive. "All hospitals are full in Lebanon. There is a great lack of medicines."

"You have your head with the people in that country," says Kleine Schaars on Radio Oost. "And, of course, with the people you've met in the meantime." A group of Lebanon veterans has been going back to the area almost every year since 2018. "We do all kinds of aid projects and from that time on we have built up a very large circle of acquaintances, you just have a lot of contact with them now."

Vehement

There is contact almost every day, by phone or via the app. "Then you hear that things are going well, but it's intense. They are very happy that they are being thought of. On the other hand, they have all fled and are hanging around Beirut, which seemed very safe at first. Now you see that most people are also fleeing Beirut again, because the bombings continue there left and right."

A number of people are also still in the south where the fighting is now starting. "A number of our acquaintances are involved in hospitals. They are in hospitals in Tyre and Sidon. So they're still there."

Medicines

Offering help from the Netherlands to the people there is difficult. "Last week, right after the bombing started, we were in contact with the Lebanese ambassador in The Hague. We know them pretty well. He also asked us and another foundation directly for medicines. All hospitals in Lebanon are full. There's a big lack of medicine and things like that. We try to give the government as much emphasis as possible, that we should still try to help. There is no point in giving money to Lebanon now. They are in desperate need of medicines and things like that."

What is UNIFIL?
UNIFIL is the United Nations Interim Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon. The operation began in 1978, following an incursion by Israeli forces into the south of the country. The aim is to maintain peace and order in the area.

From 1979 to 1985 a total of more than 9000 Dutch peacekeepers were in South Lebanon. Even now, the UN peacekeeping mission is still present in the country, but without Dutch soldiers.

There are still about 10,000 UN soldiers in Lebanon, but there is little they can do either, Kleine Schaars knows. "You're a peacekeeping force and you're not put there to play an active fighting role. You're meant to serve as a buffer so that these kinds of escalations and ground troops and ground wars are actually avoided."