POLRI

Polri is the national police of Indonesia.   The photo was taken in early September 1999 near Viqueque, East Timor.

A few days later on the 7th of September I had the pleasure of attending a shooting incident against the UN HQ building in Baucau.   I was in the building when  a Militia member  entered the building and cocked his weapon right in front of me.   Afterwards the building was surrounded by Timorese Militia (Aitarak or MILISI) and Indonesian Police (POLRI) who proceeded to shoot into the building at waist level through the windows.   A rather uncomfortable hour or so was spent lying on the floor watching bullets make tiny holes in the walls around me.   One estimate was that 4000 rounds were fired.

This was rather intimidating and I suffered a loss of high frequency hearing as a result of the barrage and I remember thinking what on earth I was doing there.    Ten days later I was among the first to return to East Timor and I am still wondering what was I thinking?

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Rigging in East Timor

Among other things, I performed rigging duties during my service with the UN.  These are photos taken in East Timor in 1999.

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UNOMIG-Abkhazia

I was on Temporary Duty (TDY) with UNOMIG, Abkhazia for 9 Months from my Parent Mission UNIFIL – Naqoura, South Lebanon in 1997.

Here are a few photos scanned from my photo album.  

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Fine food in Georgia

While on TDY with UNOMIG in the Republic of Abkhazia, I sampled some local delicacies.   

On the way to Tbiblisi, the capital of Georgia to do some antenna work, we stopped at a speciality restaurant on a mountain pass.

The dish is cattle hooves boiled in garlic soup with bits of stomach and intestines added.  Delicious.

The last photo shows  the famous dish Pelmeni, served in a roadside stall in Gali.

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While on TDY in the Republic of Abkhazia, I had the opportunity to do some work on the Sukhumi TV tower.   The tower had been damaged by shelling with one of the four legs shot through near ground level.   A rather frightening structure.

The last picture shows the top of the Microwave tower in Ochamchira.

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