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By Katrice R. Jalbuena, Reporter
Some 100 additional Filipino police officers are
to be deployed to the Darfur region in Sudan to join the United
Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations there.
Some 42 police officers were deployed by the
government in Darfur earlier this year.
The planned additional send-off shows the Arroyo
government’s commitment in finding a solution to the humanitarian
crisis in Darfur.
In its report to Foreign Affairs Secretary
Alberto Romulo, the Philippine Mission to the United Nations said it
has formally informed the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations
of Manila’s intention to contribute 100 more officers from the
Philippine National Police (PNP) to support the UN African Union
Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).
Ambassador Davide said Philippine participation
in UNAMID, touted to be the biggest UN peacekeeping operation ever
assembled by the world body, will bolster the standing of the
Philippines as one of the largest, if not the largest, provider of
individual police officers to UN peacekeeping operations.
Ambassador Davide said the Philippine
contribution is in response to the request made by UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon during his meeting with President
Gloria Arroyo during the 62nd UN General Assembly in September 2007
and during the meeting between UN Undersecretary- General for
Peacekeeping Jean Marie Guehenno and Romulo in New York on November
2007.
As of end-April, UN statistics show that PNP
officers account for 274 of the 627 Filipino peacekeepers deployed
in various UN mission areas abroad.
With this new commitment, UNAMID will host the
largest number of Filipino police officers, overtaking the UN
Integrated Mission in Timor Leste where 131 PNP officers are
presently serving. The remaining Filipino police peacekeepers are
assigned in UN missions in Afghanistan, Cote d’ Ivoire, Darfur,
Georgia, Haiti, Kosovo, Liberia, Nepal, Sudan and Timor Leste.
In addition to individual police officers, the
Philippines has 23 military and staff officers and 330 troops
serving in the UN peacekeeping missions in Cote d’ Ivoire, Darfur,
Liberia, Sudan and Timor Leste.
Their number puts the country in the list of the
top 30 troop/police- contributing countries to UN peacekeeping
operations.
The Philippines started sending international
peacekeeping and humanitarian contingent to conflict areas around
the world on April 3, 1992, just 15 fifteen months into its
reconstitution.
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