BSS :
United Nations (UN) Headquarters will observe the International Day of United Nations (UN) Peacekeepers today in appropriate manner , according to a message received here yesterday.
Secretary-General António Guterres will place wreath to honour the more than 4,000 UN peacekeepers who have lost their lives since 1948 and will preside over a ceremony at which the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal will be awarded posthumously to 129 military, police and civilian peacekeepers, who lost their life serving under the UN flag last year and in the first month of this year.
He will commemorate fallen peacekeepers, including eight from Bangladesh. Among the fallen peacekeepers to be honoured are eight from Bangladesh: WO Abdul Md Halim who served with MINUSMA; LCpl Md Abdulla Al Mamun and Sgt Mohammad Ibrahim who served with UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization mission in Central African Republic (MINUSCA), Sgt Md Mobarak Hussain, LCl Md Saiful Islam, WO Md Saiful Imam Bhuiyan and SGT Md Ziaur Rahman who were deployed with the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO); and Washer man Nurul Amin of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
Bangladesh is the largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN Peacekeeping. It currently deploys more than 6,600 military and police personnel to the UN operations in Abyei, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Mali, South Sudan, and the Western Sahara.
In a message to mark the day, the Secretary-General said of the fallen peacekeepers: “Their service and sacrifices will never be forgotten.” He further said: “I express my deep gratitude to the 85,000 civilian, police and military personnel currently deployed in some of the world’s most challenging hotspots to protect the vulnerable and help to build peace.
