Many Chinese know that China has sent a peacekeeping police force
to East Timor but little know that it has also a small force
keeping peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It
is a five men's peacekeeping police team. The team leader is Huang
Cheng; deputy head is Tan Jun, both from the PRC Ministry of Public
Security, working at Bosnia-Herzegovina Police Peacekeeping HQ and
the International Airport of Sarajevo, capital of
Bosnia-Herzegovina, respectively. The other three Chinese policemen
Liu Yaonan, Liu Haizhi, and Guo Xuequan, are performing their duty
in remote mountain areas.
Before their descent to Bosnia and Herzegovina last January, the
five had taken special training and strict examinations on English,
shooting, driving and survival.
Although initially introduced to some knowledge about
Bosnia-Herzegovina, the five Chinese policemen were still shocked
by the grim situations they were in. Depleted uranium bombs dropped
by the NATO gives the biggest pollution. Over 4 million lethal
landmines for the most part have not yet been cleared over 50,000
square kilometers of the country's land. As a result of war, small
arms were found by no means small among civilians, posing the
biggest peril among the others. What's more, as policemen from
Asia, especially China, they must face various prejudices from
their European colleagues.
Braving all possible perils and risks the Chinese policemen just
threw themselves into their work with help from the Chinese Embassy
in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are near 2,000 policemen and
policewomen coming from a few dozen countries maintaining peace in
Bosnia and Herzegovina and many of them have taken part in such
activities for several times. As required by police assignment,
every peacekeeping cop must be highly qualified for law enforcement
and make themselves competent to all task assignments and this has
made no exception with the five Chinese policemen said by their
work assignments performed.
Tan Jun, 31-year-old, heading a team including seven European
policemen was put in charge of Sarajevo International Airport. By
hard work he has proved worth his salt and won his foreign
counterparts' respect and praises of the UN in spite of all past
unimaginable misgivings and doubts about his capability and
rampaging chaos and plagues once plaguing the airport. As reported,
China has lately sent another batch of police to Bosnia and
Herzegovina, including eight policemen and two policewomen.
In
the past ten months, the five Chinese have successfully fulfilled
their peacekeeping mission and the task in giving wide publicity to
China's political and diplomatic policies. They sewed the
five-starred Red Flag on their suits with the UN badge. Guo Xuequan
from China's Kunming in Yunnan Province often says that as a
policeman from China's Pumi ethnic minority, his dispatch to Bosnia
and Herzegovina proves the equality and unity of China.
( November 5, 2001)