Women serving in the United Nations in Cyprus are vastly outnumbered by men. NAOMI LEACH meets Section Commander Corporal Sophie Smith, currently stationed at the Ledra Palace
It’s not often that you meet someone who has faced death willingly and who opts to continue confronting fatal danger head on. Few could imagine how it feels to intercept a suicide bomber, to investigate a border breach or to distribute humanitarian aid to people who do not want you in their country. But rather than dwelling on the dust, bloodshed and raw stench of war, communications specialist and driver, Corporal Sophie Smith is pragmatic and professional. She belongs to the 27 Regiment based in Aldershot, England and it is her highly competitive, sporty streak which enables her to undertake whatever challenges the British Army and now the United Nations throw into her path.
“I’m never hesitant to go. I’m always nervous when I go to places. You worry about if you are going to make it back but I am always willing to go there and do the job,” she says.
Her blue eyes dart back and forth appraisingly as we meet, she wears a broad easy smile and a blush erupts on her cheeks when our photographer asks her to pose with a gun. She is petite, athletic and looks younger than her years. But once the camera is put away, Smith relaxes into her role, striding confidently into the Ledra Palace and is greeted by several male soldiers en route. It is clear that the Section Commander garners a great deal of respect out here. Smith, a former county athlete, admits she “likes to win” and thrives on the physical challenges of her job.
During her 12 years with the British Army, the 31-year-old soldier from Somerset has toured Canada, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq three times. In her role as a communications specialist, she works as a radio operator, setting up systems and transmitting messages. Smith also drives a range of vehicles from land rovers to 40 tonne trucks. On a tour of duty if a communications specialist is not required, she then takes on other key roles.
“On OpTelic [Operation Telic] in Iraq in 2003, I was a female searcher, every time we had an op on and had to do a house clearance I’d be there doing female searching. It was scary, nerve wracking. You don’t know what they are going to do, you watch how they behave, how suicide bombers behave, you’re trained for that reason. You look for signs of sweating, nervousness, people acting strangely. Staying in one space not talking to anyone, for one person where a whole area is cleared,” she explains.
To mentally prepare for a specific hostile environment, Smith says three months of training allows her to get into the “right frame of mind” coupled with “spending as much time with family as I can,” and she is ready to go wherever she is sent. Currently, Smith is stationed at Ledra Palace in the Nicosia buffer zone on the peacekeeping team for the UN. They are responsible for “maintaining the integrity of the buffer zone”.
Smith betrays no jaded taint of experience, instead she seems delighted by the change of pace and duty here in Cyprus. The 12-hour shifts from Ledra Palace or ‘Magic Mansion’ in the buffer zone involve patrolling the green line. “We do have a few breaches – people hunting, farmers working. Farmer Jon or Mike stirring up trouble a few times a week,” she says with a grin.
“There are two construction areas which breach the buffer zone so we find people working in a building when they’re not supposed to be there without the correct permit. Parts of construction were allowed to develop but they keep trying to push out, to expand. We watch out for that as well. At the Ledra Street crossing we have to man the gate because of the protestors. There’s nothing major from protestors but Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot forces have told us if any of the protestors go into the area they’ll be shot. The people don’t understand why we’re there,” she explains.
On the whole, she says people in Cyprus seem friendly in their attitude to the UN, particularly when compared with the hostility experienced overseas. The UN also supply medical and humanitarian aid to Cypriot villagers who cannot get to the shops.
“People are lovely, really friendly. I helped one woman with her shopping bags in her 80s. She was really struggling and she tried to give me some biscuits and oranges to pay me for taking it back to her vehicle. ‘You can’t pay me,’ I told her and sneaked them back into her shopping bags but she realised and came after me,” laughs Smith.
“It’s nice doing things like that. They are very grateful and it’s nice knowing that you are helping others,” she adds.
Smith is one of just eight women alongside 200 men serving here. She concedes there is a misconception that women soldiers cannot do as good a job as men but she refutes it, “women do just as good as men if not better otherwise I wouldn’t be section commander.”
Off duty, Smith likes to “glam up a bit” and is the only woman at Ledra Palace with her own room – a right she says she has earned. “On Op Telic we were in 30-man tents in a troop with 26 guys and me. It was funny. I got some sheets and stuck them round my bed space. They’re disgusting – farting and the smell of their feet! Men always have terrible feet,” she titters.
But, “you learn to live with the guys and get along with everyone. It’s the same discipline, you’re treated the same.” She suggests it takes an independent, disciplined, diplomatic, flexible and strong minded person to be a success in the army. She aspires to become a Regimental Sergeant Major during the next 12 years. Before then she is looking forward to working at the Olympics 2012 on the bomb search team.
Smith shrugs off the risks of her job, “I enjoy traveling, being independent, doing new things. It’s interesting and different to what people would do normally. I can’t see myself getting bored. You never know what to expect. Tours bring out the feeling of making a difference. I’m glad that I did make it,” she enthuses.
