China kicked off three-month training for 148 anti-riot
policemen on Friday, and will select 125 to compose its first team
of anti-riot peacekeepers for missions in Haiti, according to the
Ministry of Public Security.
Vice Minister Meng Hongwei said Friday at the training's opening
ceremony that the anti-riot peacekeeping team would help maintain
local public security order and handle possible social turbulence,
which would require stricter and higher standards in skills and
disciplines than those for common peacekeeping police.
The team will head for Haiti in early September this year and
stay there for about six months.
"China's active involvement in peacekeeping missions of the
United Nations, especially in Haiti that has not set up a
diplomatic relationship with China, fully exhibits a peace-loving
and responsible image of the country," Meng said.
According to him, the 148 trainees, including 13 females, come
from Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing municipalities and
are aged 28 on average, with the oldest up to 41 and the youngest
only 22.
From the Tianjin anti-riot squadron, Yang Yunsheng, 41, was
quite confident in fulfilling the training. "We will cooperate and
train hard to build a powerful force with tenacious style, adept
skills and strict disciplines," Yang said in his oath.
Female trainee Han Yiqiu said her major goal was to build up her
physical strength so that she could get qualified for the mission
when the training ended.
The organization of an anti-riot team with international working
experience could not only boost the government's cause of promoting
peace and stability in the world, but also benefit domestic public
order, especially the security defense work for the 2008 Olympic
Games to be held in Beijing, Meng acknowledged.
Since 1999, the Chinese government has sent 253 police to
participate in UN peacekeeping missions, including operations in
East Timor, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Liberia, Afghanistan, Kosovo and
Haiti. Currently, 55 policemen are still left in these areas for
peacekeeping tasks.
(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2004)