Editorial
UN peacekeeping force
Bangladesh deserves senior posts
Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury has requested Jean Marie Guehenno, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, for selecting Bangladeshis for senior positions at the headquarters and field level. We think it was a timely and justified request since Bangladesh has been one of the top contributing countries in the world to UN Peacekeeping Missions and earning good name for itself wherever our troops have been deployed.
We are happy to note that the peacekeeping operations chief has assured our adviser that the UN would consider his request when future placement would become available. We also recall that recently UN Deputy-Secretary-General Asha Rose Migiro has thanked Bangladesh for its significant contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Missions and expressed her gratitude when our foreign affairs adviser called on her at the UN Headquarters in New York.
The Bangladeshi troops in UN Peacekeeping Missions working at various destinations make us proud with their commitment to duty, discipline, diligence, courage and honesty. Besides armed patrolling and flushing out miscreants, they have gotten involved in social development works in some countries. They have also set unique example of discipline at personal level. We have been told that our troops register almost zero infection rate of HIV or STD after return from overseas postings while it is much high among troops of other countries.
We feel it would be relevant to mention here that the eminence of Bangladesh Armed Forces goes back to the days of our Liberation War in 1971 when they led the war from the front at every sector with courage and vigour unparalleled. They were poorly equipped to take on an enemy that was armed to the teeth and yet they sustained in every battle. We are proud that the legacy continues.
Bangladeshi troops in UN Peacekeeping Missions have proved their worth; therefore we feel we rightly deserve senior positions in the headquarters and also field level. We hope the relevant UN authorities would consider our request on the basis of its merit.
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