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TOPIC: Civil Affairs plays an integral part for any U.S. peacekeeping operation.

DISCUSSION: There was a four-man Civil Affairs (CA) detachment assigned to Operation ABLE SENTRY. The detachment was comprised of one captain and three sergeants first class from the 96th CA BN, located at Fort Bragg, NC. The CA detachment deployed to Germany in December and transitioned with the TF to FYROM in early January.

Mission focus for CA team consists of providing direct support to the task force through civil military operations. These include, but have not been limited to:

• Foreign Nation Support.
• Civil Military Action.
• Humanitarian Aid.
• Civil Defense.
• Populace and Resource Control.

Most CA activity has centered around foreign nation support. The entire CA team is actively pursuing engineer OP improvement projects through the use of foreign nation support. Gravel and engineer equipment were located in FYROM and procured for the mission of improving roads leading to all OP and OP site upgrade.

The CA team fully incorporates CA METL tasks into the FYROM peacekeeping operation. CA can and does provide a multitude of peacekeeping operational multipliers that most units do not train on during home-station METL training. Because of their particular training, CA in FYROM is used quite extensively to promote U.S./UN, Macedonia relations.

Negotiations. The CA team has actively taken part in most negotiations dealing with U.S. and Macedonian locals. Negotiations with local Macedonians have centered around maneuver damage claims and land disputes. Recently with support from UNPROFOR and the Operation ABLE SENTRY lawyer, CA successfully resolved maneuver damage claims directed against the U.S. CA also participated in negotiations over land owner rights between the U.S. OP and Macedonian privately owned land. Involving CA early on, during negotiations over disputes between locals and U.S./UN military, frees the commander and leaders from this additional somewhat time-consuming burden.

CA has also been involved in civil military engineering projects designed to enhance relations between U.S. and Macedonian. Through the expertise of the CA engineer NCO and U.S. soldiers, two foot bridges were erected in villages adjacent to the U.S. OP.

In addition to U.S.-directed, CA-related missions in FYROM, UNPROFOR HQ occasionally requests the use of CA in local humanitarian assistance projects. The team attached to TF 1-6 is the only trained CA unit in Macedonia. The other nations have different agencies or units doing ad hoc CA.

Some of the missions CA has worked successfully outside the U.S. chain of command include:

• In February 1994, a portion of the CA team assisted the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNCHR), in developing a UN refugee plan for Macedonia. Assistance included locating refugee sights and identifying likely refugee MSRs for refugee control.

• CA also supported the Catholic Relief Services (CSR) of FYROM in distributing 3,000 tons of flour to a village near the U.S. OP U55.

While CA missions for the operations have had a positive impact on U.S./Macedonian relations, assessment shortfalls have occurred for the TF. A medical and intelligence assessment of the villages and townships near the U.S. OP as of the start of this report is not in existence. Squad leaders receive limited information on the local populace in or near the OP. What information is gathered about what is happening in the local communities is from dismounted and mounted community patrols.

None of the members of the CA team speak Serbo-Croatian or Macedonian. Local contract translators are used by the CA team for local/military liaisons. The use of local translators in conjunction with CA members has proven quite successful in all facets of the U.S. peacekeeping mission.

LESSON(S):

• Use the attached CA team to help coordinate/negotiate civil military operations.

• The UN does not have a unit which is charged with the CA team-type duties.

• Use the attached CA team to coordinate civil-military projects which will win the hearts and minds of the local populace.

• CA is not the only source of intelligence. It does provide assessments, but the best source of information is still that infantrymen out there on the ground.

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