Assistant UN secretary-general for peacekeeping operations Jane
Holl Lute visited Chinese peacekeeping troops on Wednesday,
praising China's positive role in maintaining world peace and
security.
Lute called on an engineering battalion from the Headquarters of
General Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Wednesday. She
visited photo exhibitions of China's peacekeeping operations in
Cambodia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and inspected
barracks, clubs and libraries of the peacekeeping team.
She said the Chinese engineering corps are first-class
peacekeeping troops, and she voiced her conviction that they are
capable of fulfilling their UN peacekeeping missions.
"China's armed forces have made an important contribution to
maintaining world peace," Lute said, adding the UN sincerely hopes
that there will be further cooperation with them.
The engineering battalion she visited is the first batch of
Chinese troops that participated in UN peacekeeping operations.
Altogether 1,675 peacekeepers from the battalion joined UN's
peacekeeping operations since China dispatched the first team in
1992.
More than 1,500 men and officers of the battalion have been
awarded UN peacekeeping medals. Three of them sacrificed their
lives.
(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2006)
