Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 27, 2006 22:34:46 GMT 12
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3745571a10,00.html
Kiwi cheats death in Lebanon
27 July 2006
New Zealander Andrew Greig lost four friends when Israel bombed a United Nations base in south Lebanon yesterday and only by "sheer luck" was not there himself.
"I was due to be there a couple of days ago but we couldn't make it because the roads were being shelled too much so we couldn't actually travel across to the patrol base," Squadron Leader Greig said today.
"So I was due to go and relieve the guys on the patrol base the day before it happened. I should have been there, he said.
The four UN observers killed in the Israeli air strike were from Austria, Canada, China and Finland.
Squadron Leader Greig is part of the UN military observation team in Lebanon.
He told National Radio today that the observation teams were made up of 10 people who looked after one patrol base.
Normally five people were on a patrol base at a time.
Because of the conflict, there had been four people on the patrol base at Khiam in southern Lebanon when Israeli forces bombed it yesterday.
"So we lost four people out of my team of 10 last night. We're absolutely devastated. It's just astounding, it's thrown us quite a lot."
Squadron Leader Greig said he had gone to the patrol base and had identified the bodies.
He said he had been en route to the base when the attacks happened. It had taken him three days to get from his UN base on the west coast to the patrol base at Khiam.
"We had to continuously stop because of shelling."
He had been forced to stay at a UN military camp about halfway between the coast and the patrol camp for a day because of the shelling.
He said the observation team's main job was to patrol in vehicles around the area but it could not do this because of the attacks.
However, it could do some work by observing from a static position.
"So we can see the firing going on from both sides."
". . . hopefully the conflict won't last too much longer and then we can continue to do our job. . .," he said.
Squadron Leader Greig said he would stay in Lebanon doing whatever tasks he was set by the UN.
He was "shocked and absolutely devastated" by what had happened but physically fine.
He said he was relieved his wife and children had already left Lebanon.
The New Zealand Herald reported today that it was the second lucky escape for Squadron Leader Greig, after a bomb blast shattered windows of his apartment in Tyre 11 days ago.
Pieces of concrete from a neighbouring building that was hit had shattered the windows, the newspaper said. Squadron Leader Greig's two young sons were watching a DVD in the living room at the time. Shards of concrete were left embedded in the wall of the bedroom the used.
Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday disclosed the New Zealander had survived the bombing of the UN post through "sheer luck".
"We could easily have had a New Zealand casualty," she said.
"We were so close to having a New Zealander in that base where the. . . observers were killed."
In Parliament yesterday she said the Government deplored the Israeli attack on the post and called for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East.
In a statement to Parliament, she said the Government was deeply shocked by the attack on a neutral post.
Kiwi cheats death in Lebanon
27 July 2006
New Zealander Andrew Greig lost four friends when Israel bombed a United Nations base in south Lebanon yesterday and only by "sheer luck" was not there himself.
"I was due to be there a couple of days ago but we couldn't make it because the roads were being shelled too much so we couldn't actually travel across to the patrol base," Squadron Leader Greig said today.
"So I was due to go and relieve the guys on the patrol base the day before it happened. I should have been there, he said.
The four UN observers killed in the Israeli air strike were from Austria, Canada, China and Finland.
Squadron Leader Greig is part of the UN military observation team in Lebanon.
He told National Radio today that the observation teams were made up of 10 people who looked after one patrol base.
Normally five people were on a patrol base at a time.
Because of the conflict, there had been four people on the patrol base at Khiam in southern Lebanon when Israeli forces bombed it yesterday.
"So we lost four people out of my team of 10 last night. We're absolutely devastated. It's just astounding, it's thrown us quite a lot."
Squadron Leader Greig said he had gone to the patrol base and had identified the bodies.
He said he had been en route to the base when the attacks happened. It had taken him three days to get from his UN base on the west coast to the patrol base at Khiam.
"We had to continuously stop because of shelling."
He had been forced to stay at a UN military camp about halfway between the coast and the patrol camp for a day because of the shelling.
He said the observation team's main job was to patrol in vehicles around the area but it could not do this because of the attacks.
However, it could do some work by observing from a static position.
"So we can see the firing going on from both sides."
". . . hopefully the conflict won't last too much longer and then we can continue to do our job. . .," he said.
Squadron Leader Greig said he would stay in Lebanon doing whatever tasks he was set by the UN.
He was "shocked and absolutely devastated" by what had happened but physically fine.
He said he was relieved his wife and children had already left Lebanon.
The New Zealand Herald reported today that it was the second lucky escape for Squadron Leader Greig, after a bomb blast shattered windows of his apartment in Tyre 11 days ago.
Pieces of concrete from a neighbouring building that was hit had shattered the windows, the newspaper said. Squadron Leader Greig's two young sons were watching a DVD in the living room at the time. Shards of concrete were left embedded in the wall of the bedroom the used.
Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday disclosed the New Zealander had survived the bombing of the UN post through "sheer luck".
"We could easily have had a New Zealand casualty," she said.
"We were so close to having a New Zealander in that base where the. . . observers were killed."
In Parliament yesterday she said the Government deplored the Israeli attack on the post and called for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East.
In a statement to Parliament, she said the Government was deeply shocked by the attack on a neutral post.
