Role of the United Nations

Heroes Remember

Role of the United Nations

Transcript

The purpose of the unit I was with was a third line transport company, 92 Transport is what it was called. Basically our role was to receive supplies in from the main port in Kampong Saom or from the main airport which was across the road from us. We were about 12 kilometres outside of downtown in Phnom Penh and once we received the supplies, then we redistributed them out to the second line logistics battalions and then they would distribute it out to the infantry battalions that were basically keeping the peace. So for us it was to try to support these elections by making sure that everything was secured again. We also delivered all the election kits out to the different areas especially when some people didn't want them to go out, so we had to have armed escorts on the trucks, that kind of stuff, to make sure they had their first free and fair election because Cambodia never had one up until then. They had always bounced between constitutional monarchies of a sense or what they call Republican Army that was backed by the Americans. They had, you know, the different, two different communist governments, one was what they called Internationalists, one was Nationalists, which was the Khmer Rouge so they had some different ways of donig things for their government. So to finally have free and fair elections where everybody had a voice was pretty unique for them, they didn't really know how to do it the first time around. In Cambodia you could only report, you couldn't intercede, right, so whereas on the NATO Missions we actually had the ability to act as a police force too and kind of intercede where they needed it. You see something wrong and you stop it, that's what you basically grow up with in Canada. It's wrong, it's wrong, you know like, we can fix things so for me as a technician that was probably the best place I could have ever been because I could fix things and I could help people fix things.

Description

Mr. Beresford explains the distribution and delivery process of supplies and improvements made by the UN with the situation in Cambodia

Tony Beresford

Mr. Tony Beresford was born in Windsor, Ontario June 11, 1961. He grew up in a military family where his father served in the Navy and his mother in the Air Force. Military life was a very positive decision for Mr. Beresford who first joined the Navy reserves in Windsor and after serving there for three years, joined the regular force. Mr. Beresford later joined the Canadian Forces where he decided to obtain a trade in electronics technician and ended up advancing as a fire controls technician, a very unique trade to the military. In 1992 Mr. Beresford went overseas on his first tour to Cambodia as part of 92 Transport Company. In addition to in-Canada service, Mr. Beresford was sent on tour to Bosnia in 1999. Military being a big part of his life, Mr. Beresford met and married his wife who also served with the Canadian Forces. After 30 years service, Mr. Beresford retired and resides in Ontario with his family.

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