BRAZIL: Three hundred Brazilian troops leave Rio de Janeiro to join the United Nations' peacekeeping force in Lebanon

Record ID: 349523

  • Title: BRAZIL: Three hundred Brazilian troops leave Rio de Janeiro to join the United Nations' peacekeeping force in Lebanon
  • Date: 7th October 2011
  • Summary: TROOPS BOARDING SHIP VARIOUS OF TROOPS WAVING FROM DECK AS SHIP DEPARTED MOTHER AND DAUGHTER CRYING WHILE WATCHING SHIP LEAVE SHIP SAILING AWAY
  • Embargoed: 22nd October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil, Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4P9ED5MWGRVEX6SEHCKCBY8O4
  • Story Text: Brazil deployed 300 troops on Thursday (October 06) to help the United Nations' peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) maintain security along its southern border with Israel.
    Dozens of tearful families watched the Brazilian marines depart from Rio de Janeiro on a ship that will be used as their base in the Middle Eastern country. They are expected to arrive in Lebanon within 30 days following stops in Brazil 's northeastern city of Recife , Spain and Italy .
    UNIFIL has about 12,000 troops and naval personnel in the country after its expansion under U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 that halted the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in southern Lebanon .
    The mission operates along 15,000 Lebanese army troops who are deployed in the south to keep peace near the frontier with Israel and make sure it is free of weapons transfers in an area that is a stronghold of Hezbollah guerrillas.
    The ship's captain, Ricardo Gomes, said the operation will help demonstrate that Brazil 's navy is prepared for foreign missions.
    "This operation will show our capacity to prepare our ships and our navy by going on a distant mission for a prolonged period of time and in a reasonably unstable environment," he said.
    Twenty-seven-year-old Marine Diego Pereira said he would miss his family but was moved by a greater cause.
    "I have the spirit of fulfilling my duty and helping Brazil in this new mission. We have been in Haiti and now we're heading to Lebanon to carry out another mission there," he said.
    The navy ship, which is also transporting a helicopter, is highly equipped with cannons and new satellite communications gear that will also be used by troops to keep in touch with their families.
    The Brazilian force will work hand-in-hand with other German, Turkish and Indonesian troops in southern Lebanon.
    UNIFIL was created in 1978 to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli troops who invaded Lebanon in the same year.
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