GHANBATT marks ‘UN Blue Helmet Day’

.... with a clean-up exercise in Côted’Ivoire

The 14th Ghanaian Battalion (GHANBATT 14) serving with the United Nations Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (UNOCI) in collaboration with the Bondoukou Local Authority, celebrated International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers (UN Blue Helmet Day) on Saturday, May 28 2011 with a massive clean-up exerciseand to raise awareness of social cohesion and national reconciliation in a healthy environment.

The exercise was carried out by GHANBATT personnel and the locals on the main street of Bondoukou. They spent more than four-and-a-half hours, removing garbage from gutters, clearing bushes and sweeping the streets. The locals were also sensitized on messages of peace, social cohesion and awareness for the maintenance of a healthy environment.

In a speech read on his behalf, the Commanding Officer of the Battalion, Lt Col William Dagbe said the deployment of UN military personnel and civilian staff requires a very large amount of logistical support. Often the countries in which peacekeeping personnel operate have very little infrastructure. All these UN personnel produce liquid and solid waste which, if not treated and disposed properly, can have an impact on the local environment.

He therefore called on the Local Authority to partner GHANBATT to sustain a healthy environment in Bondoukou township and its environs. Speaking on the theme for Peacekeepers Day 2011, “Justice, Law and Peace,” Lt Col Dagbe said upholding the rule of law, is essential to peacekeeping, ‘this requires strengthening confidence in the local authority and to endeavour not to abuse power especially in a post-conflict environment’ he said.

The International Day of UN Peacekeepers provides an opportunity to commemorate fallen peacekeepers and recognize the importance of the role that these "blue helmets" play all over the world. The International Day falls on May 29 of each year, but it was observed here on Saturday May 28, 2011. So far, 2011 has been a difficult year for UN peacekeepers in the field, with 26 killed between 1 January and 10 April. In April, UN peacekeepers experienced two disasters in quick succession - the attack on the UN compound in Mazar-i-Sharif and the crash of a UN plane in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These incidents added to others involving fatalities around the world, and followed the painful events of last year, when 173 peacekeepers lost their lives due to natural disasters, violence, accidents and disease, including more than 100 in the single, terrible blow of the January earthquake in Haiti. Representatives from the local authority, personnel of the Republican Forces of Côte d'Ivoire (FRCI) and several representatives of NGOs and associations also took part in the exercise.

Robison Omane-Agyei (Fg Offr), GHANCON PIO UNOCI