United Nations: An Indian peacekeeper, who laid down his life while serving for a UN mission in Congo, will be honoured with a prestigious UN medal for courage and sacrifice in the line of duty, officlal sources said.
Police Officer Jitender Kumar is among the 119 military, police and civilian personnel who will be honoured on Friday, they added.
He died while serving in the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).
Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, India's Permanent Representative to the UN, would collect the medal on behalf of the fallen Indian peacekeeper at a solemn ceremony here.
India is the fourth largest contributor of uniformed personnel to the UN peacekeeping. It currently contributes more than 6,400 military and police personnel to the UN peace operations in Abyei, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Lebanon, the Middle East, South Sudan and the Western Sahara.
According to the UN information last year, India has lost the highest number of its peacekeepers deployed in various UN peacekeeping operations in the last 70 years, with 163 military, police and civilian personnel from the country making the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty.
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Of the 3,737 peacekeepers who have died since 1948, 163 have been from India.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will preside over the ceremony this week at which the Dag Hammarskjold Medal will be awarded posthumously to 119 military, police and civilian peacekeepers, who lost their lives in 2018 and early 2019.
The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers was established by the General Assembly in 2002, to pay tribute to all men and women serving in peacekeeping, and to honour the memory of those who have lost their lives in the cause of peace. The General Assembly designated May 29 as the International Day of UN Peacekeepers.
