Cambodia sends 184 peacekeepers to Lebanon

PHNOM PENH - Cambodia on Thursday dispatched the fifth batch of 184 peacekeepers to Lebanon to replace the fourth group, whose one-year United Nations peacekeeping mission has ended.

The military engineering group will carry out their one-year duties by clearing landmines, constructing roads, bridges, shelters and defense posts, and providing medical treatment to Lebanese civilians, Gen. Pol Saroeun, Commander-in- Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, said during the sending-off ceremony at the capital's Military Airbase.

"This is really a new achievement that has been accomplished by our brave armed forces in the area of peacekeeping," he said, advising the peacekeepers to strictly comply with Lebanon's independence and sovereignty and to work actively to fulfill this humanitarian operation.

Claire Van der Vaeren, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations Development Program to Cambodia, hailed Cambodia for its active contribution to the UN peacekeeping operations.

"Twenty-one years ago, UN peacekeepers supported Cambodia to recover from conflict, but Cambodia now is a country that helps other countries, like Lebanon, to recover from conflict," she said.

The Southeast Asian nation firstly sent troops overseas in the framework of the UN Peacekeeping Operations in 2006. Since then, it has deployed about 2,350 peacekeepers in Sudan, South Sudan, Chad, Lebanon, the Central African Republic, and Mali.