By NNN-APP,
United Nations : Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has thanked UN member states, especially Pakistan, for contributing troops for the world body’s peacekeeping missions around the globe that have helped keep peace in conflict-torn countries.
“Our special thanks go to the top contributors: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Nigeria.
Together, these nations of the South contribute nearly half of the United Nations peacekeepers,” he said in a message marking the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers being observed today.
This year, the annual occasion also marks the sixtieth anniversary of United Nations Peacekeeping.
“Peacekeeping has developed into a flagship enterprise of our organization. Today, we have more than 110,000 men and women deployed in conflict zones around the world. They come from nearly 120 countries—an all time high, reflecting confidence in UN peacekeeping,” the secretary-general said.
“They (peacekeepers) different cultures and experiences to the job, but they are united in their determination to foster peace.”
Pakistan is among the largest troop contributors, with nearly 10,000 soldiers in various UN Peacekeeping Missions around the world.
Later today, UN officials will gather at the world body’s headquarters in New York for a wreath-laying ceremony to honour the more than 2,400 blue helmets including 90 last year who have died in service.
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno will lead the solemn ceremony, which is also being marked by a series of activities at UN offices and peacekeeping operations around the world.
A multimedia exhibition entitled “Looking back, moving forward,” chronicling the history of UN peacekeeping, will also open at UN Headquarters. The UN’s Department of Public Information (DPI) has also arranged for the exhibition to be shown concurrently in Bogota, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Canberra, Islamabad, Mexico City, Pretoria and Rabat.
On Friday, Guéhenno will award the Dag Hammarskjöld medal to the military, police and civilian personnel who died last year while serving in UN operations. The medals will be received by representatives of the respective permanent missions.
Two fallen peacekeepers from Pakistan are among those honoured: Captain Pervaiz Mehdi who lost his life while serving with the United Nations Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (ONUCI) in February 2007 and Inspector Zia Muhammad Khan who was killed while serving with the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) in May 2007.
The Day, which is the exact anniversary of the date in 1948 when the Security Council established the first UN peacekeeping operation, the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), has been marked by the UN since a General Assembly proclamation in 2001.