America
India unveils virtual memorial wall for fallen UN peacekeeping heroes
By
By Arul LouisUnited Nations, May 30
India has launched a
virtual memorial wall to honour the UN peacekeeping heroes who died in
service as the first step towards building a permanent monument at the
UN headquarters.
Permanent Representative Asoke Kumar Mukerji
unveiled the digital memorial wall on Friday at a reception India hosted
here to honour the 125 recipients of the Dag Hammarskjold Medal awarded
posthumously to peacekeepers on the International Day of UN
Peacekeepers.
Two Indians were among those awarded the Dag
Hammarskjold Medal at an earlier ceremony presided over by Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon at the UN.
They are Raju Joseph, a civilian
who died while working for the UN operation in South Sudan, and Lance
Naik Nand Ram, who served in the UN mission in the Democratic Republic
of Congo.
At the Indian reception attended by defence officers
from around the world in a kaleidoscope of international military
ribbons, medals and uniforms, Mukerji invited them to contribute the
names of their heroes to the virtual wall that is now hosted by the
Indian mission at www.pminewyork.org.
It now has the names and details of 161 Indians who died in peacekeeping operations.
Eventually,
a UN Peacekeepers' Memorial Wall is proposed to be built at the
headquarters with the names of the heroes engraved on it.
In a
message to the event, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said:
"India is justifiably proud of its own long and rich tradition of
contribution to the UN peacekeeping operations towards the preservation
of international peace and security."
India has contributed over
180,000 troops to 44 UN missions so far. Currently, 8,112 Indian
personnel drawn from the military, police and civilian ranks serve in
seven UN operations.
"India has been one of the great peacekeeper
contributor countries," said the Under-Secretary General for
Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous.
Welcoming the initiative for the memorial wall, he added: "the heroes deserve our admiration for their courage."
Under
Secretary General for Field Operations, Atul Khare, who is from India,
paid tribute to the Indians who gave their lives for the UN and noted
that they represented more than five percent of all those who died
serving the organisation.
"I am delighted with the virtual wall. The real wall will become a reality," he said.
Mukerji
said that the Security Council's permanent members have failed to have
face-to-face meetings with the troop contributing countries while
designing the mandates for the operations, even though the UN charter
calls for it.
The South Asian countries have highly professional military leadership and the Council could use their expertise, he added.
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh contribute the three largest contigents to the UN operations.
At
another ceremony, three Indian military officers and a police officer
were awarded UN Headquarters Medal for service to the world organisation
at the department of peacekeeping operations.
They are Lt. Col. Bharat Sirohi, Lt. Col. Rajneesh Duseja, Lt. Col. Bharat Bhalla, and Deputy Inspector General P.S. Knegi.
(Arul Louis can be contacted at [email protected])