Bao Bao, who finished his one-year tour of duty as head of Group
One of the United Nation's Bureau of Law Enforcement and Patrol in
Monrovia, capital of Liberia, returned home to Zhejiang Province on
January 23, only to find his grandmother had passed away six months
earlier.
She had made sure that Bao was not told of her serious illness.
"She didn't want to upset me in my job as a UN peacekeeping
policeman," Bao said.
"And I repaid her love and high expectations of me with my
work," said Bao, who received a UN Peace Medal last year.
One day on patrol, Bao and his colleagues helped ease a severe
traffic jam caused by a funeral procession.
Bao said: "The people called out 'God bless you, Chinese'."
China is now one of the countries awarded the most peace honor
medals.
Nearly 30 Chinese peacekeeping police officers are still serving
under the UN flag in Liberia and Sudan to help reconstruct their
legal systems and reform their law enforcement forces, as well as
protect human rights, and assist in humanitarian relief
efforts.
Guo Baoshan, deputy director-general of the ministry's
International Cooperation Department, said in an earlier interview
that the Chinese government always gives "active support" to the UN
peacekeeping operations.
He stressed that once dispatched, Chinese peacekeeping police
officers work as UN employees. "They don't receive any orders from
the Chinese government while being on duty with the UN
mission."
Ministry figures show that China has dispatched 94 police
officers to Liberia and Sudan since its first team arrived in
Africa in 2003. They face great danger and challenges because of
unrest, as well as water shortages, blackouts and various
diseases.
Meanwhile, according to the Peacekeeping Affairs Office of the
Ministry of National Defense, 1,546 Chinese UN peacekeeping
soldiers and officers are on active duty with 218 in the Congo, 558
in Liberia, 435 in Sudan and 335 in Lebanon.
Since 1990, China has joined 15 UN peacekeeping operations with
more than 6,000 personnel participating.
(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2007)
