Peacekeeper Rai posthumously honoured with UN recognition

NEW YORK: United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has honoured Nepali peacekeeper Bhupajit Rai posthumously with the Dag Hammarskjold medal. Rai had served the UN stabilization mission in Congo.

At a ceremony organized at the UN Headquarters to mark the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers on Thursday, Secretary-General Guterres handed over the honour presented to Rai to Permanent Representative of Nepal the to UN Lok Bahadur Thapa.

Highlighting the bravery, dedication and devotion of Rai who laid down his life in course of discharging the duty, the Secretary-General expressed his confidence that Rai would remain an inspiration for all those deployed in peacekeeping missions.

Rai had passed away in Congo on October 13 last year.

The International Day of UN Peacekeepers has been observed since 1948 which marks the deployment of military observers to the Middle East to supervise the implementation of Israel-Arab Armistice Agreements, in what became the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization.

Since then, more than two million peacekeepers from 125 countries have since served in 71 operations around the world. Today, some 76,000 women and men are serving in 11 conflict zones across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Nepal is the largest contributor of military and police personnel to UN peace operations with more than 6,000 now serving in Abyei, the Central African Republic of the Congo, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, the Middle East, Somalia, South Sudan, Western Sahara and Yemen.

The Nepal government has been deploying the Nepal Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police personnel as peacekeepers.