Brazil News
| BRASILIA – Brazil announced today that a contingent of 300 troops will depart next Thursday for Lebanon, where they will join the UN peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL. The navy frigate, Union, will depart Rio de Janeiro with sailors, combat divers and marines to a six-month mission off the Lebanese coast.
Brazil continues its participation which began in February of this year, when Rear-Admiral Luiz Henrique Carolina assumed command of the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force. Currently, four Brazilian officers advise the commander on the mission.
Until now, Brazil has not committed ships or large numbers of troops for the mission in which, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Turkey and Bangladesh already participate. The Union frigate will carry an AH-11A Super Lynx, a detachment of combat divers, who can perform special operations, and one of marines, who will be responsible for the safety of the ship. Additionally, the ship will serve as command headquarters for the entire task force.
“Brazil is showing its ability to arm a warship and send it to a remote region, which requires complex logistical support and which validates its stature on the world stage. This is a very noble goal: maintenance of peace in the region, which historically, has serious political problems,” said Rear-Admiral Savio Nogueira, of the Brazilian Navy Surface Force.
The ship will make stops in Recife (Brazil), Las Palmas (Canary Islands) and Naples (Italy), before arriving in Beirut, on November 14th. The deployment will return to Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. According to the Rear-Admiral, the Navy is able to send a second ship to replace the Union, if necessary.
The UN created UNIFIL in 1978 with the objective of maintaining stability in the region during the withdraw of Israeli troops from Lebanon following their, now largely forgotten, 1978 invasion of that country. About 13,500 soldiers from 30 countries participate in the mission. Although Israel invaded Lebanon again in 1982, it wasn't until after their 2005 invasion that the UN created the Maritime Task Force to support the peacekeeping mission by securing the Lebanese coastline.
Brazil has a population of between 7 and 10 million persons of Lebanese ancestry--a population larger than that of Lebanon itself.
Read also: More Articles from Brazil Dispatch
Brazilian online news source for this article: O Globo
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