Syria situation posing extreme risks to Pinoy peacekeepers in Golan Heights — DFA

The "deteriorating" situation in strife-torn Syria is posing great risks to some 300 Filipino peacekeepers who are deployed in Golan Heights as part of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).

The wounding of a Filipino peacekeeper in the Golan Heights on Thursday “highlighted once again how the deteriorating security situation in Syria is posing extreme risk to the UNDOF mission,” said Raul Hernandez, spokesperson of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

The Filipino peacekeeper, who was not named, was wounded after a wayward indirect fire landed at a United Nations camp in Golan Heights, is now in stable condition, the DFA said.

A member of the 6th Philippine contingent to the Golan Heights, the Filipino was hit by shrapnel just above his right ankle.

“He was immediately given medical treatment and is now in a good and stable condition,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said in a press briefing.

The incident happened while there was fighting between Syrian government and rebel forces some three to four kilometers away from Camp Ziouni, the logistics base of the UNDOF in Golan Heights.

The DFA earlier recommended to President Benigno S. Aquino III to withdraw more than 300 Filipino peacekeepers from the area as soon as possible following the second kidnapping of Philippine troops in the volatile region by rebels last month.

The peacekeepers are part of the U.N. mission monitoring the armistice line in Golan Heights between Syria and Israel following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

“We would like to emphasize that peacekeepers should not be exposed to that kind of risk. They form an impartial observer force with the important task of maintaining peace in an area that used to be a site of conflict. As such, the peacekeepers should be assured of their safety and security,” Hernandez said.

The Philippines has a total of 742 police, military and jail personnel in eight U.N. peacekeeping operations, namely Haiti, Liberia, South Sudan, Cote d’ Ivoire, the disputed territory of Abyei between Sudan and South Sudan, the India-Pakistan border and Afghanistan.

Austria's pullout of forces

Austria said on Thursday it would pull out of a UN force on the Golan Heights after battles between Syrian troops and rebels there, in a blow to a mission that has kept the Israeli-Syrian war front quiet for 40 years, a Reuters news agency report said.

Israel, anxious for the international mission to remain in place, worried that the Golan could become a springboard for attacks on Israelis by Islamist militants fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"While appreciating Austria's longtime contribution and commitment to peacekeeping in the Middle East, we nevertheless regret this decision and hope that it will not be conducive to further escalation in the region," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

But the departure of the Austrians, who make up about 380 of the 1,000-member UNDOF, threatens the whole operation.

"Austria has been a backbone of the mission, and their withdrawal will impact the mission's operational capacity," said U.N. spokeswoman Josephine Guerrero. - with a report from Reuters, VVP, GMA News