Offering solace to soldiers far from home

The chaplain is somebody Swisscoy members can confide in swissinfo.ch

The Rev. Peter Willener, a hospital chaplain from Steffisberg in canton Bern, has counseled many Swiss soldiers stationed in Kosovo.

He has traveled to their camp to offer moral support during Christmas and Easter holidays, and to encourage the Swisscoy soldiers to express their problems to commanding officers. For most of the year, an Austrian priest provides spiritual guidance.

The Swiss have their own wooden church, tucked away behind the barracks.

On a snowy, bitterly cold winter’s night, Father Willener spoke of the military congregation in Kosovo.

Do many worshippers use the church?

It is used more by Catholics than Protestants. The Mass and the service seem to be more important for the Catholics.

Do the soldiers confide in you?

Yes, many soldiers need someone to listen to them, someone who has time for them, who understands them, someone who can strengthen their hope that the whole adventure down here will come out in a good way.

What sort of problems have you encountered?

The problems are the same in all the contingents. There is a gap in understanding between the staff and soldiers. Some give orders and the others have to follow. For some, the whole thing is too militarized, which they didn’t expect. For others, it is not militarized enough, which means they expect the commanders to give more orders. These problems are quite contradictory and not easy to solve. The problems are the same as they would be anywhere that some 100 people work closely together.

How important are your holiday visits?

Christmas is filled with expectations, hopes and feelings concerning friends, families at home and the situation in the world. If these expectations are not fulfilled there can be disappointment, frustration, quarrels, conflicts. So I think the job I am doing here – also offering companionship – is very important.

What do you say to them?

I help by taking them seriously. I know it’s a real problem, something they didn’t expect, something disappointing. Maybe companions disappoint them. Taking them seriously means that I tell them, “Yes, from your point of view you are right. This is very difficult and costs you a lot of energy as it is no longer what you expected.”

In a second step, I also try to bring them down to reality, telling them they are part of a military formation so have to follow orders and do lots of things they don’t like in a way they don’t like. This is their duty, I tell them.

I also tell them to talk to their commanders, to tell them what their problems are, what they don’t like, and to try to find a solution together.

There is a saying. “First in your life you learn to speak and to walk. Later you are told to sit still and shut up.” For me there are times to stand up and speak and there are times to sit down and shut up because someone has given you orders as a soldier. I encourage them to speak to their commanders and try to solve these problems, and not just to keep their hands down and keep asking what it is all for.

You mentioned that many soldiers suffer from the “help syndrome”. What is this?

This means they have great expectations about what they can do and what they can change down here. In a very positive way, they all want to be little heroes or, if possible, big heroes, who solve the problems of the people here and make their lives better.

These expectations are mostly too high because the reality is hard. There are all sorts of political, economic and social limitations, which they must overcome. It is very hard for these young people – most of them are very young – to go on and overcome frustration, overcome disappointment because they can’t be the big heroes they wanted to be. They just have to be a small part in this big machinery, and carry on regardless. For me this is one of the major goals – to keep them to their duty and make them go on anyway.

What have you learned from this experience?

My major experience is to see how almost infinite the good will of these people is to do something for the people down here, and to go on day after day with their duties, with their work, even if they are stopped by economic, social and political obstacles.

Even if they are asking themselves “What am I doing down here and what is this all for?” they still go on and stick with what they have to do. They really try to change something and bring peace – if I may use this big word. That is very impressive.

They are very young and it wouldn’t have surprised me if some of them had thrown it all away when they realized all the things they couldn’t do. But they go on and try hard. That is a really good lesson to me. It shows me that my basic trust in mankind is justified.

by Julie Hunt