Long-lost UN badge put to rest with owner
Peacekeeping vet reunites insignia with fallen soldier
It was a standard United Nations cap badge — olive branches encircling the world, the wishful-thinking symbol of planetary peace.
But to Garry Best, a Newfoundland peacekeeping veteran who came to possess the long-lost UN insignia, the small remnant from a fallen Canadian’s blue beret was especially rich with meaning.
And so, during a return trip last week to Cyprus as part of a Veterans Affairs entourage marking the 50th anniversary of Canada’s peacekeeping deployment to the Mediterranean island, Best buried the badge at the gravesite of its original owner: Cpl. Otto Redmond, a fellow Newfoundlander killed in a jeep rollover in 1967 while trying to keep hostile Greek and Turkish Cypriots from killing each other.
The poignant gesture completed the badge’s mysterious, 47-year journey from Cyprus to Canada and back to Redmond’s side at a Commonwealth military cemetery in Dhekelia, a small patch of British territory on the disputed island.
The beret, the badge and a bloodied UN flag had been discovered by a passerby at the scene of Redmond’s death on March 10, 1967, on a mountain road along the north coast of Cyprus. The unidentified Turkish Cypriot had reached the spot after the peacekeeper’s body had been taken away and the upturned vehicle removed.
The man gathered up the flag and the badge, but left the blood-covered beret behind.
“He kept these things, and he didn’t want to go and turn them in because he was afraid they would implicate him in what happened,” said Best, noting how vehicle accidents involving peacekeepers in Cyprus were sometimes linked to rock-throwing or other actions by angry locals.
“But he thought it was important to keep them, and he did,” said Best, who served in Cyprus in 1972-73. “And eventually he immigrated to Canada.”
In 2005, Best appeared on national television in his capacity as president of the Newfoundland and Labrador chapter of the Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association. Soon after, he received an unsigned letter and a package from the Turkish Cypriot who had collected the flag and UN badge from the place where Redmond had died.
“He didn’t sign the letter. He was worried he might be deported. He just said he was a Turkish Cypriot and that he knew these were important artifacts, and he wanted me to have them — ‘You’ll know what to do with them,’ ” he said.
A few years later, after Best had spearheaded the creation of a peacekeepers memorial in St. John’s, the “blood flag” he’d received from the unknown Cypriot was flown above the monument in tribute to Redmond.
And this week, with support from Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino — who led Canada’s anniversary delegation to Cyprus — Best returned the cap badge to his fellow Newfoundlander.
“Garry Best paid an emotional tribute to a fallen Canadian soldier,” Fantino told Postmedia News. “I’m sure it brought a certain level of closure to the Canadian veterans who served and sacrificed for Canada — and for both the Greek and Turkish communities — in Cyprus.”
Fantino added: “We must be forever grateful for the 28 Canadians who lost their lives in Cyprus. We must ensure that we — and future generations — never forget their sacrifice.”
A small Canadian flag that marks Redmond’s grave was also replaced during last week’s ceremony, along with the flags above eight other graves at Dhekelia where Canadian peacekeepers are buried.
The bodies of the other Canadians who have died during the 50-year mission in Cyprus were repatriated for burial.
Redmond’s son said he hadn’t heard about the ceremony but applauded the tribute.
“I think it’s a good thing anytime to recognize someone who puts their life on the line for their country — or someone else’s country,” said Marcellus Redmond of Portugal Cove, N.L.
He was 10 when his father died. He recalls how the family heard on the television news one night that an unnamed peacekeeper had died in Cyprus, “and when a priest showed up at the door the next day, we knew.”
Placing the badge in the foot-deep hole at Redmond’s grave, said Best, was a moment he’ll never forget.
“I just felt I should give it back to him, because he was buried without the hat badge he wore when he died,” he said.
“To military people, that’s important.”