TO readers following the work of Filipino soldiers in the United Nations peacekeeping force, the name of the rebel group that led the lightning fast capture of the main cities of Syria and forced President Bashar al-Assad to flee to Moscow could ring a bell: Al-Nusra Front! A decade ago, on the Golan Heights in the demilitarized buffer zone between Syria and Israel, some 200 Al-Nusra rebels, true to their UN label as terrorists affiliated with al-Qaida, attacked the multinational UN Disengagement Observer Force (Undof), held hostage the contingent from Fiji, and relayed a message to the nearby Filipino contingent they would get safe passage out if they surrendered and handed over their weapons. The Undof commander, a soldier from India, fearful of putting their lives in jeopardy, told the Filipinos to do what the rebels told them. But the Filipinos, mistrusting the rebels because some of them had been kidnapped by the rebels earlier, checked with their commander back home in Manila who ordered the soldiers to stand their ground. The Filipinos opened fire and fended off the rebels for three days, killing three of the rebels on the final day. Under cover of darkness, they cut the barbed wire surrounding the UN encampment, crossed a minefield and escaped to the Israel side. Later, after the whole affair was settled through negotiations with the rebels, the Philippines asked to withdraw its soldiers from the Undof for security reasons as three countries had done before, but was prevailed upon by UN officials, concerned about the depletion of Undof ranks, to let the brave Filipino contingent remain. The Security Council passed a resolution that the Undof soldiers should be better armed, considering the superior heavy weapons used by the rebels, and that changed the rules of engagement, allowing the peacekeepers to shoot to kill if necessary.
The end of the near half-century repressive rule of the Assad dynasty and of the deadly civil war ignited by the Arab Spring of 2011 have been celebrated by the Syrian general population and the international community. Much of the more than a million Syrians, who fled to other countries and sparked the biggest refugee crisis until then experienced by the world, has manifested a keen desire to return to their homeland. Turkey, which has hosted the largest portion of the Syrian diaspora, has opened its side of the common border with Syria to facilitate the outgoing traffic of people and vehicles into Syria. Germany and other European countries are offering financial assistance to Syrian refugees wanting to retrace their steps back home. Many of the refugees will see their former residences in ruin and rubble, and the unemployment rate in their old country is now dreadfully unprecedented. Yet the Syrians are apparently now hopeful, if not optimistic, about a brighter future for their country, which is after all an oil-rich one, and the Syrian people are resilient and capable, enduring from the dawn of civilization.
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