Waiouru soldier in Afghanistan

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 279, 21 March 1989, Page 5

Waiouru soldier in Afghanistan

New Zealand Army engineers will be in Pakistan by the end of April helping train Afghanistan personnel in mine clearance techniques. They will support a major relief and rehabilitation programme of Afghani refugees.

The team leader, W aiouru's Captain John Peacocke, and four noncommissioned officers will leave New Zealand in mid April to take up

their duties in Peshawar in north west Pakistan. They will join training teams from Canada, the United States, France and

Turkey. The return of the more than five million refugees to Afghanistan has been complicated by the several million mines laid during the conflict. A large number of Afghanis including women and children were being killed or maimed each week by mines that had been laid at random and little local expertise was available to tackle the problem. This programme is the first to be launched by the United Nations that involves the use of military personnel in a humanitarian role. The Government has welcomed this development and was pleased to be able to make a modest contribution to this Turn page 16

Afghanistan mission

From page 5 important task. The Ministers noted that the ability of the Army to assist with the training programme underlined the wide range of capabilities within the

Armed Services to support international efforts in both the humanitarian and collective security fields. The cost of maintaining the team in Pakistan for a period of

four months will be met by the United Nations Afghanistan Coordinator's Office, with New Zealand meeting the cost of deploying the team to and from Pakistan.