Ban admires Indian peacekeepers' commitment, discipline

United Nations, April 5: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met Army Chief Dalbir Singh here Monday and expressed his admiration for the Indian peacekeepers’ commitment and discipline. Singh assured Ban of Indian peacekeepers’ commitment to the UN mission and said they would continue to receive the highest quality of training for UN deployment. They would be held to the utmost standards of discipline and the Indian Army totally adhered to Ban’s zero tolerance policy on sexual exploitation abuse, he added.

While the peacekeeping operations have been marred by scandals of sexual abuse by UN and other troops on missions, Indian peacekeepers received a clean chit in the first comprehensive report last month on sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel.

Ban told Singh and India’s Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin at their meeting that he appreciated India’s strong support for the peacekeeping operations. India currently has 7,695 troops serving under the UN’s blue flag and historically has been the largest contributor of personnel, having sent 180,000 troops to 48 missions.

Last September Prime Minister rendra Modi offered to provide 850 more troops and three police units with a high proportion of women for UN operations. (IANS)