Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: French legionnaires join U.N. forces in Indochina Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 14:23:38 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD French legionnaires join U.N. forces in Indochina \BY Bernard Edinger \CR REUTERS NEWS AGENCY \DT NIMES, France NIMES, France - Nearly 40 years after their elders fell defending the beleaguered garrison at Dien Bien Phu, the French Foreign Legion is going back to Indochina, this time as neutral U.N. peacekeepers. The 600 legionnaires leaving this month for an area of Cambodia sandwiched between the Thai and Vietnamese borders will leave behind their traditional white "kepi" hats, immortalized in novels such as "Beau Geste" and Gary Cooper films. It will be the first time the 161-year-old legion, one of the world's best-known fighting forces, will come under U.N. orders. The legionnaires will wear peacekeepers' blue helmets. Around the world, there are about 8,000 legionnaires, garrisoned from the jungles of French Guiana in South America to the East African desert republic of Djibouti, allied to France. The men acknowledged that the pay makes Cambodia an attractive posting. It starts at $1,200 a month for the lowest-ranking trooper, and a corporal gets double that. Are the hard-bitten legionnaires, who often have joined up in search of action and are always battle-ready, disappointed at their new noncombat role? "If our officers say the mission is to keep peace, that's what we'll do. Whatever the mission is, we'll do it," said Robert Ortega, 24, a squat and muscular former U.S. Marine from Chicago. Mr. Ortega spoke at a tent camp in rough countryside outside this city in southern France where crew-cut men, weighed down with extra ammunition for their gleaming black FAMAS assault rifles, practiced manning roadblocks and detonating mines. Blasts resounded in the background as khaki-clad legion sappers practiced using detonating devices to set off mines. There are about 4 million unexploded mines in Cambodia. "This one will tear off your foot and this one will take your leg off above the knee," said an explosives expert showing hard-to-detect plastic-topped mines made in China. Legionnaires from about 60 countries are in the unit going to Cambodia. So are nearly 300 French regulars. They will relieve a French unit that left earlier this year when the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia began to deploy more than 15,000 troops to prepare for elections in May. The plan appears to be running into trouble, largely because the Khmer Rouge, held responsible for killing a million people when they ruled the country from 1975 to 1979, refuse to disarm. "We're not going to solve the Cambodia situation by ourselves," said Col. Yves de Kermabon, the tall, poker-faced commander of the unit, which includes many Gulf war veterans. "Our job is to keep the peace and to reassure people traumatized by war, and that's what we'll do," he said. A young French lieutenant said: "They joined looking for action, but some are still not clear about where Cambodia is. The main thing is they're first-class professionals and will do what they have to a first-class way." The muscular, often tattooed legionnaires were guarded when questioned by a reporter. "Sorry, but that's the way it is," said an accompanying major. "A legionnaire's past is his own business and we don't want anyone prying into their backgrounds or having them inadvertently disclose classified information." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM