By Peng Xi and Li Minggui
BEIRUT, July 15 - The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) held a completion ceremony for the construction of observation outposts along the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel on July 13. Major General Stefano Del Col, head of mission and force commander of UNIFIL, spoke highly of the most challenging engineering tasks accomplished by the Chinese construction engineering unit (CHINCEU) with high standard.
The ceremony was held in front of the reinforced observation outpost newly constructed for the Spanish peacekeeping battalion. Representatives of peacekeepers from ten countries, including China, Cambodia, and Spain, attended the event. At the ceremony, all personnel stood in silent tribute to those soldiers who had died from attacks when standing guard at the original observation outpost in 2015.
Major General Del Col cut the ribbon for the completion ceremony and checked the quality of the newly-built observation outposts. He said, "I must say that all the peacekeeping contingents under the UNIFIL should be grateful to the Chinese engineer detachment for its professional skills and outstanding ability."
After the border clash between Lebanon and Israel in September 2019, the headquarters of the UNIFIL issued an emergency decision to construct a total of 19 reinforced observation outposts in camps near the Blue Line last December, to safeguard the security of peacekeepers stationed nearby and improve their ability to respond to emergencies. Eight of the 19 outposts were completed by the 18th batch of CHINCEU, and another three by the 18th Chinese peacekeeping multi-functional engineer contingent to Lebanon. After the work for 7 months, Chinese peacekeepers overcame multiple difficulties, including operations near minefields and long-distance maneuvers, and insisted on completing the construction with high quality.
Chen Wei, a staff officer assigned to CHINCEU, said: "Most construction sites have undiscovered minefields and large machinery could not be deployed. All these greatly increase the risk in construction and enhance the difficulty of the task. It's really a big challenge for us."
It is learnt that these reinforced observation outposts newly constructed are located in sensitive areas along the border between Lebanon and Israel, and could ensure the security of the UNIFIL personnel while effectively fulfilling missions. At the same time, the observation outposts also serve to prevent militants from entering and destroying camps, thereby improving the defense security of the camps.
