Chinese peacekeeping forces return home from Haiti
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All 126 members of China's eighth peacekeeping force to Haiti returned home Tuesday morning after a ten-month peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean country.
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Members of the eighth contingent of Chinese riot police in Haiti stand in formation upon their arrival in Beijing, capital of China, May 4, 2010. The eighth contingent of Chinese riot police, which is made up of 126 police officers, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday after they successfully carried out their assignments as UN peacekeepers in Haiti. [He Junchang/Xinhua] |
The team arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport at 11:08 a.m. on a United Nations chartered flight.
They were welcomed with a brief ceremony at the airport in which vice public security minister Meng Hongwei said the force had "made a significant contribution to Haiti's social stability and reconstruction" since the Jan. 12 quake.
The devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake flattened Haiti and left eight Chinese police officers dead.
According to the estimates by the government of Haiti, the 7.0 magnitude earthquake killed more than 200,000 people, injured or permanently disabled many thousands and left 1.5 million people homeless.
China dispatched its first peacekeeping team of 125 members to Haiti in 2004 after a coup in the country.
