... The President wore the helmet as soon as he received it and posed for a picture with Ban Ki-moon...Bogor, W Java (ANTARA News) - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon presented a blue helmet to President Susilo Yudhoyono as a symbol of appreciation for Indonesia's participation in the UN peacekeeping forces.
Yudhoyono received the blue helmet at the Sentul Peacekeeping and Security Center here on Tuesday. The President wore the helmet as soon as he received it and posed for a picture with Ban Ki-moon.
The helmet in light blue colour as well as the berret with UN logo are the symbol of the UN Peacekeeping Force that their headquarter located in New York.
On January 8, 1957, Indonesia had sent the Garuda I contingent to join the UN peacekeeping force in Egypt, and the Garuda II and III contingents to the Congo in 1962.
As of 2008, Indonesia had dispatched the Garuda XVI to support the peacekeeping efforts in South Lebanon.
The visiting UN chief appreciated Indonesia`s participation in the UN peacekeeping forces in a number of countries.
At the Sentul Peacekeeping Center, he delivered a speech entitled UN Peacekeeping: Challenges and Opportunities for Indonesia, The Region and Beyond.
He also praised Yudhoyono for being the only head of state in the world to join the UN peacekeeping forces in Bosnia in 1995.
The peacekeeping center located at Sukahati village, Citeureup sub district, Sentul, Bogor District, was inaugurated by Yudhoyono on December 19, 2011.
The construction work began in 2010 and it will be completed in 2014. The center is expected to produce around 4,000 personnel for the UN peacekeeping forces.
The center will also be used as a location for counter-terrorism handling, a defense university, a foreign language study center, a disaster mitigation center and a military sport exercise center.
According to data from the Indonesian Permanent Mission to UN in New York, Indonesia has sent a total of 1,972 military and police personnel to six different UN peacekeeping missions, including the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), and the United Nations Stabilization Mission In Haiti (UNSTAMIH).
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Editor: Ade P Marboen
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
