May 25, 2000 - 02:19 AM
Novel Exercises Train African, U.S. Forces for
Peace, Not War
By George Mwangi
Associated Press Writer
GONGONI, Kenya (AP) - Beads of sweat roll down U.S. Marine
Cpl. Justice Angel's face as she vigorously mixes concrete, sand
and cement with a spade under the tropical sun.
Angel, 21, flushes in the heat as she works to build a new
maternity ward for the Kenyan Indian Ocean coastal village of
Gongoni - by hand.
The good-works deployment is part of a novel kind of military
exercise for American and African troops.
They're training not for making war, but nurturing peace.
"This is a whole new experience. We were expecting to come here
and work using familiar equipment," said the camouflage-clad
Angel, an Owatonna, Minn., native in the engineering unit of the
1st Expeditionary Brigade from Camp Pendleton, Calif.
"We expected to use a mixer," she said. "Back home, we use a
level - but it can't be used here, because the blocks aren't even."
Under Exercise Natural Fire 2000, Angel and her comrades train in
the guise of pretend U.N. peacekeepers deployed to a notional
state in Africa called Galana, which is economically and politically
unstable.
The goal: help Galana return to normalcy.
"It's not easy to work in a different, hotter and humid condition -
different from our base in California. It's much cooler there," said
Angel, who's in Africa for the first time.
"But this experience is very useful to me in case I am deployed on
a peacekeeping mission in Africa," she said. "I am prepared about
what to expect."
About 1,200 Americans from the Marine Corps, Navy, Army and
Air Force, along with 1,000 service members from Kenya, 210 from
Tanzania and 200 from Uganda are participating in this year's East
African combined forces exercise.
The exercise jibes with the smaller-scale deployments that
Western nations increasingly have taken on since the end of the
Cold War: in Kosovo, Bosnia, Sierra Leone, East Timor and other
hot spots around the globe.
In Sierra Leone, real U.N. peacekeepers have come under attack
from Revolutionary United Front rebels who are still holding about
250 peacekeepers hostage.
"Hopefully, a training like this will help our forces to be
well-prepared for a war situation like in Sierra Leone," Marine
spokesman Lt. Scott Bowman said.
The training, which started April 27, ends Saturday.
Bowman describes the scenario as a peace operation that copes
with both humanitarian crises and natural disasters.
The training includes medical, dental and veterinary care, mounting
of road checks and crowd control.
There's also instruction and practice in the equally nontraditional
aspects of modern peacekeeping: everything from conflict
management and resolution to disaster relief and humanitarian
assistance programs, said Lt. Gen. Aden Abdullahi, the Kenya
exercise controller and director.
The U.S. government is providing the largest amount of funding.
Soldiers' participation in humanitarian service is a new concept in
Africa, where they are known almost solely for their military
activities - which often makes them seem like enemies of the
people.
"I fear soldiers, but I don't mind them here, as long as what they
are doing is helping us," said Edna Nyamau, 20, watching the
Marines and Kenyan and Tanzanian soldiers build the maternity
ward.
Suddenly, gunshots rent the air. Soldiers at the gate of the mock
U.N. base struggled to push back rowdy and armed rebels fighting
to break into the compound.
Here, the soldiers are practicing crowd-control techniques.
"A situation like what had happened in Sierra Leone can arise,
where you are forced to defend yourself," explained Lt. Col.
Richard Mwanjanje, commander of the Tanzanian troops.
"On a mission to support humanitarian activities, we must be
well-prepared," he said.
Novel Exercises Train African, U.S. Forces for
Peace, Not War
By George Mwangi
Associated Press Writer
GONGONI, Kenya (AP) - Beads of sweat roll down U.S. Marine
Cpl. Justice Angel's face as she vigorously mixes concrete, sand
and cement with a spade under the tropical sun.
Angel, 21, flushes in the heat as she works to build a new
maternity ward for the Kenyan Indian Ocean coastal village of
Gongoni - by hand.
The good-works deployment is part of a novel kind of military
exercise for American and African troops.
They're training not for making war, but nurturing peace.
"This is a whole new experience. We were expecting to come here
and work using familiar equipment," said the camouflage-clad
Angel, an Owatonna, Minn., native in the engineering unit of the
1st Expeditionary Brigade from Camp Pendleton, Calif.
"We expected to use a mixer," she said. "Back home, we use a
level - but it can't be used here, because the blocks aren't even."
Under Exercise Natural Fire 2000, Angel and her comrades train in
the guise of pretend U.N. peacekeepers deployed to a notional
state in Africa called Galana, which is economically and politically
unstable.
The goal: help Galana return to normalcy.
"It's not easy to work in a different, hotter and humid condition -
different from our base in California. It's much cooler there," said
Angel, who's in Africa for the first time.
"But this experience is very useful to me in case I am deployed on
a peacekeeping mission in Africa," she said. "I am prepared about
what to expect."
About 1,200 Americans from the Marine Corps, Navy, Army and
Air Force, along with 1,000 service members from Kenya, 210 from
Tanzania and 200 from Uganda are participating in this year's East
African combined forces exercise.
The exercise jibes with the smaller-scale deployments that
Western nations increasingly have taken on since the end of the
Cold War: in Kosovo, Bosnia, Sierra Leone, East Timor and other
hot spots around the globe.
In Sierra Leone, real U.N. peacekeepers have come under attack
from Revolutionary United Front rebels who are still holding about
250 peacekeepers hostage.
"Hopefully, a training like this will help our forces to be
well-prepared for a war situation like in Sierra Leone," Marine
spokesman Lt. Scott Bowman said.
The training, which started April 27, ends Saturday.
Bowman describes the scenario as a peace operation that copes
with both humanitarian crises and natural disasters.
The training includes medical, dental and veterinary care, mounting
of road checks and crowd control.
There's also instruction and practice in the equally nontraditional
aspects of modern peacekeeping: everything from conflict
management and resolution to disaster relief and humanitarian
assistance programs, said Lt. Gen. Aden Abdullahi, the Kenya
exercise controller and director.
The U.S. government is providing the largest amount of funding.
Soldiers' participation in humanitarian service is a new concept in
Africa, where they are known almost solely for their military
activities - which often makes them seem like enemies of the
people.
"I fear soldiers, but I don't mind them here, as long as what they
are doing is helping us," said Edna Nyamau, 20, watching the
Marines and Kenyan and Tanzanian soldiers build the maternity
ward.
Suddenly, gunshots rent the air. Soldiers at the gate of the mock
U.N. base struggled to push back rowdy and armed rebels fighting
to break into the compound.
Here, the soldiers are practicing crowd-control techniques.
"A situation like what had happened in Sierra Leone can arise,
where you are forced to defend yourself," explained Lt. Col.
Richard Mwanjanje, commander of the Tanzanian troops.
"On a mission to support humanitarian activities, we must be
well-prepared," he said.