Accra, May 24, GNA - Ghana on Monday renewed her commitment to continue cooperating with the United Nations in peacekeeping to improve on the current level of international peace and security.

"The Government and people of Ghana are very proud of the services of its security personnel and commend them for the high standard they have set wherever they have been to render invaluable services," a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in Accra said. The statement under the theme: "Sacrificing for Peace: 50 Years of Ghana's Participation in United Nations and Regional Peacekeeping Operations", was in connection with the celebration of International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.

It said as a responsible member of the United Nations, Ghana had since 2004 celebrated International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers in response to United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/57/129 to "observe the day in an appropriate manner."

Ghana also agreed with the United Nations to celebrate the Day to recognise "the invaluable contribution to the promotion of peace and security of all the men and women, who have served and continue to serve in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations and as a memorial for the sacrifices of all the men and women who lost their lives in the cause of peace." Since the 1960s when Ghana first sent troops under the UN flag to former Congo Leopoldville now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana has got deeply involved in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations all over the globe.

For close to 50 years, Ghana has maintained her position of being in the top 10 contributing nations of both military and police personnel to UN peacekeeping operations.

In the first peacekeeping operation that Ghana participated, that is, the United Nations Operation in the Congo, of the 19,928 troops, Ghana contributed 8,800 about 44 per cent.

This clearly demonstrates the country's commitment to UN Peacekeeping Operations. That commitment has neither waned on the part of the Government nor the personnel involved. Now the country is contributing personnel from the Prisons Service as well as electoral officers.

Peacekeeping in an era of ethnic cleansing and brutal civil war is not a tidy affair and even though many countries have served the United Nations in its quest for global peace and security by contributing their military and police personnel, few can boast of Ghana's consistent and steadfast willingness to answer United Nations' call to duty.

The officers, men and women have placed themselves time and again in harm's way as they stood between opposing armies or among rebel forces with no respect for the sacrifices these courageous men and women have made. Ghana's commitment and steadfastness to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations spring from the era of its independence in 1957 and the inspiring pan-African ideas of the late President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, whose centenary birthday has been given a pan-African touch with a number of activities in his memory.

President Nkrumah's quick response to the call by the United Nations for peacekeepers to the then Congo Leopoldville in the early 1960s set the precedence which has been followed to date.

But some people put Ghana's commitment to peacekeeping even to an earlier date. They point to the Gold Coast Regiment, part of the West African Frontier Force that fought in German Togoland and the Cameroon during the First World War in defence of the British Empire. Again, in the Second World War, the Gold Coast Regiment fought on the side of the Allies in West and East Africa and in the Far East. In Ghana's security services thus resides a deep tradition of internationalism and intervention aimed at restoring international peace and stability.

At all levels of peacekeeping, Ghanaian personnel have benefited immensely from the experience gained in a range of complex and multidisciplinary tasks including disarming combatants, shoring up fragile peace agreements, building local police and security capacities, restoring public order, running public administration, monitoring human rights, organising democratic elections and acting as humanitarian aid workers. Ghanaian peacekeepers have provided a human touch in the midst of misery and depravity by demonstrating respect, understanding and empathy in situations where those qualities were most needed; giving war victims the expected relief, assurance, safety and security to go about their daily chores.

More than 300,000 of them have rotated in over 63 United Nations, regional and sub-regional Peacekeeping Missions from Congo; Rwanda; Namibia; Mozambique; Liberia; Sierra Leone; Cote d'Ivoire; Darfur, Sudan; to the Middle East, the Balkans and Asia. The Government of Ghana pays special tribute to the 96 UN peacekeepers, who lost their lives during the earthquake in Haiti last January. In the same vein, the Government pays tribute to the 121 UN Peacekeepers, who died during peacekeeping duties in the course of 2009.