Cambodian troops honored ahead of mine-clearing mission in Sudan
April 15, 2006 (PHNOM PENH) — Buddhist monks sprinkled holy water and flower petals on a team of soldiers headed Saturday to the war-torn African nation of Sudan to participate in Cambodia’s first U.N.-peacekeeping mission.
The team of 109 soldiers was to fly out aboard a U.N. plane to join an advance group of 26 soldiers already in place for what Cambodian officials have hailed as a historic event for the Southeast Asian country.
The 135 soldiers will focus on mine-clearing missions.
“This is an opportunity to work hard, to build up your honor, dignity and make a great achievement for the whole of humanity,” Defense Minister Tea Banh said during a ceremony at the Phnom Penh military airport.
“Cambodian history will not forget your contribution” the minister said, surrounded by government officials, family members of the soldiers and monks dressed in traditional saffron-colored robes who performed a Buddhist ceremony to bless the troops.
Holding their U.N. blue berets in one hand, the soldiers kneeled as five monks sprinkled holy water on their heads from bowls filled with jasmine and the petals of lotus flowers _ a ceremony to bestow good luck, health and safety.
In 1992 and 1993, Cambodia hosted what was then the United Nations’ biggest ever peacekeeping operation, costing more than US$1.5 billion (A1.26 billion) and involving 16,000 troops and security personnel from almost three dozen countries. The operation, established by a 1991 pact ending a lengthy civil war, led to free elections in 1993.
Nearly three decades of civil war had left Cambodia as one of the most mine-ridden countries in the world. Extensive aid from the international community has helped Cambodia build its own capacity in mine-clearing and has enabled the country to help others in need.
“Cambodia has suffered from millions of land mines,” Douglas Gardner, the U.N. resident coordinator in Cambodia, said in a Wednesday ceremony that involved handing the U.N. flag to the Cambodian troops. “Yet from those terrible instruments of war, brave Cambodians have developed skills in de-mining that will be now brought to Sudan to ensure that their fellow human beings do not suffer.”
The Cambodian soldiers will be stationed in the southern Sudanese city of Malakal along the White Nile River.
“All of you have the greatest honor, to be written down in the Cambodian history _ for the first time ever _ as the United Nations peacekeeping forces,” Prime Minister Hun Sen said during the Wednesday ceremony.
He said Cambodia has reserved 1,080 extra soldiers for future requests from the U.N. for mine-clearing tasks in other countries.
The United Nations Mission in Sudan, or UNMIS, was set up to help implement a January 2005 peace agreement that ended a 21-year civil war between Sudan’s mostly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south.
(ST/AP)