UN honours 2 Zambian peackeepers posthumously

The United Nations (UN) has posthumously honoured two Zambian peacekeepers that died last year while serving in the UN missions in Timoreste and Sudan respectively. The two Zambia Police Officers, Inspector Francis Banda and Sergeant Morton Kamata Muyuni have been honoured with the Dag Hammarskjold medals.

This is according to the press statement released to ZANIS in Lusaka on Sunday by first Secretary for Press and the Zambian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, Moses Walubita.

Inspector Banda died on October 9, 2009 while serving with the United Nations Mission in Timoreste (UNMIT) while Sergeant Muyuni died on February 20, 2009, while serving with the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).

They were among 112 peacekeepers that died while serving with the United Nations and honoured during the the eighth annual International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, which is observed May 29.

However, commemorative activities at the United Nations Headquarters in New York , United States of America , and many other United Nations offices around the world took place on Friday, since May 29 falls on Saturday.

Zambia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Lazarous Kapambwe, received the Dag Hammarskjold medals on behalf of the recipients yesterday.

And United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, said this year’s commemoration was a sombre one. Mr. Moon said the past 14 months have been especially deadly for United Nations peacekeeping.

“Ambushes in Darfur, terrorism in Kabul and a plane crash in Haiti. These were among the tragedies that struck peacekeeping last year, killing 121 people,” he said.

He said as the United Nations honoured such moving displays of courage and dedication, it also paid tribute to over 122,000 military, police and civilian personnel who serve with distinction in its operations across the world.

Meanwhile, President of the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Dr. Ali Abdussalam Treki, said in his message that UN peacekeepers have stabilised situations, maintained peace and rekindled the hope of millions of conflict afflicted people around the world.

“This important work and achievements come with great sacrifice. 2010 has been a particularly tragic year for UN peacekeepers and the UN family as a whole. The devastating earthquake in Haiti also claimed the lives of 96 peacekeepers, the largest ever loss of UN staff in the history of the Organisation,” he added.

ZANIS