F E AT URE
Peacekeeping Missions with Australia’s Army and ‘Talking Under Water’ with the Red Cross Kath Stewart has served as Australian Army officer on peacekeeping missions, with the strength of a military force behind her, and as an unarmed official from the International Committee of the Red Cross with just her wits, experience and negotiating skills to calm violent situations. Now she’s in Canberra as the ICRC’s armed and security forces delegate. Over 30 years as an Australian Army officer, Stewart took part in four major, and diverse, operations starting in 1997 as part of the truce monitoring group in Bougainville. As a young captain she was part of a 20-strong forward group and quickly became aware of the complexities of such operations. The Australians had been invited by the Bougainville forces and the Papua New Guinea government to monitor the ceasefire between them. But when the Australians arrived, one of the first questions Stewart was asked was: ‘Why are you invading us?’ That gave her an early perspective on how those involved could see the same situation very differently. Then she went to Syria, Israel and
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AUSTRALIAN PEACEKEEPER
Lebanon as a peacekeeper with the United Nations Truce Supervisory Organization. She recalls being completely outside her comfort zone, working with individuals from 22 different nations and negotiating with people driven by entirely different goals. That meant understanding what was motivating those people, even if she did not agree with them, and seeking solutions that were as mutually beneficial as possible. In 2003, she joined the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, working with 10 regional partners trying to re-establish the rule of law there. She commanded nearly 100 personnel providing communications. That involved considerable time spent in outlying villages and learning local norms and customs. Then came a deployment to the Middle East helping plan coalition operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. So, how did those operations prepare her for her role with the Red Cross? ‘The training and experience I got in the ADF was excellent and it did help me understand how important it
is to listen to people when you go into a different situation’, says Stewart. ‘You have the training behind you, you rely on that training. You work with a team in the ADF, but also in the ICRC.’ Working in highly professional, motivated teams with a mix of strong negotiation, leadership and people skills is fundamental, Stewart says, but so is listening to the people you’re there to help. How big a mental shift was required in making the transition from peacekeeping and monitoring in a military organisation to the strict neutrality of the Red Cross? The values of the ADF and the ICRC are similar, Stewart says, so that part of the change was easy. The two organisations have very different objectives, but they have mutual interests. An early experience with the ICRC took her to Israel where she dealt with armed groups while she was, of course, unarmed. ‘What it really reinforced to me is the importance of negotiation skills and the ability to use your wits to get the message across, but to maintain that neutrality and independence so that you can have a difficult but balanced conversation with the people that you’re talking with.’ Her work with the ICRC involves visiting detainees, reuniting families, supporting livelihood projects, and helping improve the access to essential services of people on the ground. ‘All of those things needed me to be able to talk to those that carry weapons, but also the people we were there to help.’ In the Middle East she used her experience and knowledge to challenge negative assumptions
