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UN honors fallen peacekeepers ahead of int'l day

Xinhua, May 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

The United Nations on Thursday honored fallen UN peacekeepers who lost their lives while serving under the UN flag.

At UN Headquarters in New York, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presided over a wreath-laying ceremony in honor of all men and women who lost their lives in peacekeeping operations worldwide.

According to UN statistics, 129 peacekeepers from 50 countries died last year due to malicious acts, accidents and disease. Since 1948, the death total is nearly 3,500.

At an inaugural ceremony, Ban presented the first "Captain Mbaye Diagne Medal for Exceptional Courage" to the family of the late Captain Diagne, a Senegalese military officer who saved hundreds of lives while serving as a peacekeeper during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

Also at the ceremony, the Dag Hammarskjold Medal was awarded posthumously to those peacekeepers who died last year.

"Peacekeeping remains the flagship of the United Nations enterprise," said Ban, noting that with about 124,000 peacekeepers deployed in dangerous areas worldwide, the risk of fatalities is extremely high.

He said the peacekeeping community, including member states, the UN Secretariat and the Peacekeeping Operations, must join forces to make the blue helmets' work in hazardous locations as safe as possible.

The honoring activities came ahead of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers which is observed annually on May 29. Currently, there are 16 peacekeeping operations deployed in countries and regions including Western Sahara, Central African Republic, Kosovo, and Liberia. Endit