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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogadishu_Line
http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/173/30474.html


Although 'Crossing the Mogadishu line' only became a phrase popular after BHD in 1993, in fact IMO this concept was already active much earlier- in fact, as far back as the 1960s when ONUC peacekeepers in the Congo became actively involved in combatting the Katanga secession, thereby crossing the line as theoretically impartial referees to become combatants against the white mercenaries & Katangese gendarmerie. Of course, after Mogadishu, the Line was also crossed in 1994/95 in Bosnia, when NATO bombed the Bosnian Serbs to the negotiating table, in conjunction with a strengthened UNPROFOR Rapid Reaction Force opening fire owith 155mm shells on the Serbs near Mount Igman, & the HV's Operation STORM.

WI more such UN PKOs had also crossed the Mogadishu Line before Somalia ? WI say Blue Helmets in other places ended up becoming directly invovled in shooting matches after extensive provocations by 1 side or another in a particularly contested conflict zone ? This came close to happening in Cyprus in 1974 after the Turkish invasion of the north, when RAF F-4 Phantoms at the Akrotiri & Larnaca airbases were alerted to support British & other UNFICYP peacekeepers in case of active hostilities with the Turks, while similarly in 1992/93, there were similar tenesions between UNTAC & the Khmer Rouge over the latter's refusal to disarm as part of the Prais Peace Accords- WI the Mogadishu Line had indeed been crossed by UN peacekeepers stepping over into peace-enforcement ? WI other instances occurred in places like Lebanon- if UNIFIL Blue Helmets became actively engaged against say Palestinian, AMAL or HEZBOLLAH irregulars after the kidnap & murder of certain UN personnel (the fate of a few unfortunate young Irish soldiers, & also a fate narrowly avoided by an Australian UNMO in the early 1980s- Capt Jim Wallace- who later became CO of the Australian SASR & is now head of the Australian Christian Lobby [I've met him, too] ), or perhaps against IDF forces at some point like during Op PEACE FOR GALILEE in 1982 or after the 'accidental' bombardment of the Fijian UNIFIL compound in 1996 ?
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