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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Wednesday, April 9, 2014 | 10 Peacekeeper speaks about Guatemalan mission by Julia Le Oakville Beaver Staff Halton students received a lesson in global awareness before they kicked off debate about worldwide issues at Iroquois Ridge High School's first Model United Nations (UN) Conference last Wednesday. Oakville's Eva Maria Martinez, who is director of Contracts, Process and Program Management at UTC Aerospace Systems Landing Gear, shared her experience being Canada's first female military observer in the UN's Mission to Guatemala in 1997. At the time, the 44-year-old was part of an international contingent overseeing a ceasefire following the end of a 36-year civil war. "Although my experiences were limited to a very small mission in a very small country, I hope you can draw from it that there are many parallels with some of the social, political, (and) economical issues playing out around the world today," she said. Martinez graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada and Canadian Forces School of Aerospace before working as an aeronautical engineer in the Royal Canadian Air Force between 1993 and 2002. She was called to join the Guatemala peacekeeping mission at age 27 and admits she didn't know much about the strife in the country or volatile environment in which the people lived. Eva Maria Martinez "The significance of the mission really started to sink in when we started being trained on things like how to clear land mines or how to negotiate the release of prisoners or how to handle weapons. (It was) well beyond anything I would've seen while serving in the Canadian military," she said. It was an eye-opening experience that made her appreciate the work of the UN, she said. The mission took three months and included getting to know the locals, visiting schools and building relationships to verify that the ceasefire agreement signed by the Government of Guate- mala and Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) was upheld. Martinez described how she and others from the international contingent also ensured there was separation between the two forces by establishing two concentric areas, security zones and co-ordination zones. Martinez was personally involved in meeting with the URNG representatives, who were heavily armed when they came down from the hills they were living on to meet with her and other officials. The group helped about 3,000 URNG members integrate back into society without incident, got assistance identifying and clearing minefields and collected 535,102 weapons and rounds of ammunition. "All in all, the mission was a success again, a testament to both parties, proving you really do need consent in order to make peacekeeping work," she said. "Both sides need to be willing participants and be equally engaged." Martinez said it was a small mission, but certainly not an insignificant one. Since then, Guatemala has seen economic growth and political democratic stability, she said. Martinez also commended students, who came from Iroquois Ridge, Abbey Park and Garth Webb high schools and Burlington's Aldershot, Frank Hayden and Robert Bateman high schools, for taking part in the conference that aims to promote global awareness while giving students the opportunity to practice debate, conflict resolution and negotiation through role play. She said they're gaining social responsibility and leadership skills, and an appreciation for the sensitivities between nations. "There are struggles and suffering all around the world and the United Nations certainly has its work cut out," she said. Martinez told the Oakville Beaver it was a rewarding to speak to an "audience of enthusiastic and engaged students committed not only to the success of their Model UN Conference, but to the long-term learning that will come from it." "With students acting as delegates from each of the member nations of the UN, many of them were truly in character having studied their respective countries' policies and ideologies on various international economic, social, political and environmental topics while balancing the relationships with the other member representatives," she said. The students also heard about Rukshan De Silva's experience on the international front. 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