Cambodia readies first peacekeepers to be cease-fire observers in Sudan

By KER MUNTHIT, Associated Press Writer

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Marc 25, 2005 (AP) — Cambodia said Friday that it will send a small team of military officers to Sudan as part of a United Nations mission to monitor a peace deal that has ended a 21-year-civil war.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to send 10,700 peacekeepers to Sudan to monitor the peace deal.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen agreed to allow 15 military officers, with the rank from captain to lieutenant colonel, to work as cease-fire observers in Sudan, said a press release issued after a Cabinet meeting.

Cambodia wants eventually to be able to send 1,000 troops “to take part in (other) peacekeeping missions under the United Nations framework as well,” the statement quoted Hun Sen as telling Cabinet.

In the meantime, Cambodia will gradually prepare — at the request of the U.N. — 135 army officers and enlisted men from demining units for deployment in Sudan, it said. During almost three decades of war and unrest, Cambodia became one of the world’s most heavily mined countries, and its military has extensive experience in removing land mines.

In 1992-93, Cambodia hosted what was then the United Nations’ biggest ever peacekeeping operation, costing more than US$1.5 billion (A?1.2 billion) and involving 16,000 troops and security personnel from almost three dozen countries. The operation, established by a 1989 pact ending a lengthy civil war, led to free elections in 1993.

Cambodia sent 16 deminers to Kosovo in 1999 and 20 to Eritrea in 2001, as well as a technical team to Afghanistan to offer expertise and information on how to deal with land mines.