SECRETARY-GENERAL PAYS TRIBUTE TO CONTRIBUTION OF POLISH PEACEKEEPERS,
IN MESSAGE TO 30TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION IN WARSAW
Following is the message of Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the thirtieth anniversary of Poland’s first contribution to United Nations peacekeeping, as delivered today in Warsaw by Colin Glennie, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Poland:
The anniversary you are celebrating today should inspire pride in every Pole, and gratitude in the rest of the United Nations family.� Thirty years have passed since the advance party of the first Polish contingent of Blue Helmets arrived in the Sinai Peninsula to join the second United Nations Emergency Force.� This marked the beginning of one of the most steadfast troop-contributing traditions among the membership of the United Nations.� Within a few months of that first deployment in 1973, the logistics support unit from Poland had grown to more than 800 troops.
It is a tradition that continues undiminished to this day.� Today, Poland contributes more than 700 troops, military observers and civilian police to eight peacekeeping missions -- four of them in Africa, two in the Middle East and two in Europe -- making Poland the fourteenth largest troop-contributing country in the United Nations, and the second largest in Europe.
The world has changed a great deal over these 30 years.� So has the nature of United Nations peacekeeping.� But Poland’s support for our peace operations remains constant, defying the downward trend in troop contributions among many other developed countries.� Your support is thus not only invaluable to the task at hand; it serves as a much needed example to inspire others.
I express my sincere gratitude to the Government and people of Poland, and above all to the men and women in uniform who have served the cause of peace so faithfully.� I pay tribute to the 45 committed and courageous Poles who gave their lives in the cause of peace.� They made the ultimate sacrifice, and we will always remember them with profound respect.
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