As a nation, we are proud of Bangladeshi peacekeepers for their contribution to global peace and stability. Bangladesh has always remained a strong supporter of United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping Operations globally.
Bangladesh is the largest troop-contributing country for the UN peacekeeping missions. Some 7,500 Bangladeshi male and female persons are employed in nine UN peacekeeping missions around the globe. So far, 166 peacekeepers from Bangladesh have lost their lives while serving in UN peacekeeping operations. Our peacekeepers have restored the confidence and trust of the local people by extending their humanitarian and social works while they have freed many critical places.
While paying a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the latter's official Ganabhaban residence in the capital Dhaka on Saturday the UN Under-Secretaries General Jean-Pierre Lacroix and Catherine Pollard spoke highly of Bangladesh’s contribution to UN peacekeeping and highlighted Bangladesh’s impressive success stories in various other fields.
Bangladeshi peacekeepers are
known for their pro-active operational
measures, deep sense of commitment
and excellent professionalism
The UN has successfully completed 75 years of its peacekeeping operation while Bangladesh has been contributing to the UN peacekeeping missions for over three decades with the utmost dedication and professionalism. We expect our country’s peacekeepers will establish Bangladesh as powerful peace promoting country and uphold the dignity of its flag. They should discharge duty with professionalism, honesty, sincerity and dedication as promoting global peace is a noble task. Performance of the Bangladesh peacekeepers has been well appreciated in most difficult places including Mali, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo. Bangladeshi peacekeepers are known for their pro-active operational measures, deep sense of commitment and excellent professionalism.
Many of our peacekeepers have lost their lives on the line of duty. Indeed, despite enormous challenges, Bangladeshi peacekeepers have never faltered to carry out their responsibilities. But, it is very unfortunate when we see different vested quarters are out to defame our peacekeepers and make them controversial in many ways.
We saw in the newspapers that Amnesty International gave a statement, urging to screen the employees who are working in the RAB or who are involved in violating the human rights in our country and not to deploy them on peacekeeping missions of the UN. Everyone knows the Amnesty as Irene Khan, a close relative of Tarique Rahman, was the general secretary of the organisation and she is involved with it till now.
It is known to all that how the statements of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are made, where those are drafted and what they get in exchange for their statements. The organisation (Amnesty) remained silent when people were killed like birds in Palestine. In fact, they have no ethical rights to make statements on these issues of Bangladesh. The peacekeepers should not pay heed to such motivated, fabricated and indecent statements and remarks. They will have to understand that ensuring global peace is now much more challenging than the past in view of the world’s contemporary perspective.
