Assistant UN secretary-general for peacekeeping operations Jane Holl Lute visited Chinese peacekeeping troops on Wednesday, praising China's positive role in maintaining world peace and security.

 

Lute called on an engineering battalion from the Headquarters of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Wednesday. She visited photo exhibitions of China's peacekeeping operations in Cambodia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and inspected barracks, clubs and libraries of the peacekeeping team.

 

She said the Chinese engineering corps are first-class peacekeeping troops, and she voiced her conviction that they are capable of fulfilling their UN peacekeeping missions.

 

"China's armed forces have made an important contribution to maintaining world peace," Lute said, adding the UN sincerely hopes that there will be further cooperation with them.

 

The engineering battalion she visited is the first batch of Chinese troops that participated in UN peacekeeping operations. Altogether 1,675 peacekeepers from the battalion joined UN's peacekeeping operations since China dispatched the first team in 1992.

 

More than 1,500 men and officers of the battalion have been awarded UN peacekeeping medals. Three of them sacrificed their lives.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2006)