The Chinese peacekeeping engineers are installing a blue bucket which is marked with “UN” letters and the latitude and longitude of the spot. Photo by Deng Zhongkai

　　After the withdrawal of the Israeli troops which had occupied southern Lebanon for as long as 22 years in 2000, the United Nations (UN) delimited a 121-km-long “Blue Line” which is also called as the “Lebanon-Israel ceasefire line”.

　　When the personnel of the Map Information Center of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) confirmed the spot for the boundary marker, the engineers of the Chinese peacekeeping engineer battalion to Lebanon would erect cylindrical marker at the very spot and then install a blue bucket which is marked with “UN” letters and the latitude and longitude of the spot. These concrete markers are about 3 meters in height and 2 meters in diameter.

　　The reporters came to the Chinese peacekeeping engineer battalion to Lebanon in late January and witnessed the hardship of the peacekeeping engineers in the operation of erecting boundary markers along the “Blue Line”.

　　Minefields are everywhere along the “Blue Line”. On most occasions, the officers and men of the Chinese peacekeeping engineer battalion had to go for about one or two kilometers with heavy building materials on their shoulders in order to bypass the minefield just for approaching a boundary marker spot with a linear distance of only about 200 meters.

　　There is no sign of peace along the “Blue Line”, but a smoke-laden battlefield. With strong sense of mission, the Chinese peacekeeping servicemen are speeding up the construction process of boundary marker erection, so as to make the “blue peace line” further extend.

　　By Deng Zhongkai and Chen Tao