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Hundreds of Filipino peacekeepers are posted in different
flashpoints of the globe. They enjoy the gratitude of the world
public for enduring a far from peaceful job, but one that brings
them to episodes of violence and strife.
Lately, two Filipino police officers serving
with the United Nations (UN) mission in Kosovo were among dozens of
peacekeepers injured in the violence that broke out in the volatile
northern city of Mitrovica, the Philippine Mission to the United
Nations reported.
In its report to Foreign Affairs Secretary
Alberto Romulo, the Philippine Mission said the two Philippine
National Police (PNP) officers, who it declined to identify pending
notification of their next of kin, were injured in the riots that
came shortly after other peacekeepers from the UN and the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization stormed a UN court that was seized last
week by Kosovo-Serbs.
Ambassador Hilario Davide Jr., Philippine
Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said the Philippine
Mission is closely monitoring the situation in Kosovo and is in
touch with Senior Supt. Dencio Duldulao, commander of the 40-member
(PNP) Peacekeeping Contingent, and Supt. Romeo Pillonar, the senior
PNP officer in Mitrovica.
Davide said the two officers, both assigned to
the Prisoner Escort Unit of the Specialized Police
Unit—under the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), were part of a
three-vehicle convoy transporting detainees when they were blocked
and attacked by an undetermined number of Serbs along St. Peter
Street near the North Mitrovica police station at about 7 a.m. on
March 17.
Davide said the two officers were dragged out of
their vehicle by an undetermined number of Kosovo Serbs after they
refused to release the detainees they were transporting. Reports
said the mob was able to free 10 of the detainees.
The two officers, who sustained bruises and
other injuries, were brought to a UN hospital where they were
reported to be in stable condition.
A number of UN peacekeepers were injured when
Serbs fought off with gunfire, grenades and stones UNMIK and NATO
peacekeepers who stormed the UN court that was taken over last
Friday by Serbs protesting the unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s
independence by the Kosovo Albanian majority.
Davide said that although 18 of the 40 PNP
officers in Kosovo were sent to Mitrovica to augment UN police
officers there, no Filipino was involved in the actual takeover of
the UN court.
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