By Ma Yichong and Yu Lei
KHARTOUM, Sudan, March 23 (ChinaMil) -- Chinese first peacekeeping helicopter detachment received its first military capability assessment conducted by the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on Wednesday.
According to the latest UN regulations, all UN peacekeeping missions must regularly conduct military capability assessments covering 12 subjects on peacekeeping forces from troop-contributing countries in order to fully verify their capability to perform tasks.
The UNAMID assessment team came to the camp of the Chinese peacekeeping helicopter detachment at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Chen Wenlong, captain of the Chinese peacekeeping helicopter detachment, made reports to the assessment team on the military training, logistics and armaments and foreign communication and exchange of his detachment.
The assessment team then carried out on-site inspections of the combat duty room, equipment room, ammunition depot, sports room, and logistics support facilities of the Chinese detachment.
Afterwards, in order to examine the emergency response capability of the detachment, the assessment team leader demanded the Chinese detachment have an on-spot troop mobilization in response to surprise attack.
Under Chen’s command, dozens of full-armed Chinese peacekeepers rushed to more than ten defense positions in the camp and were in combat readiness in less than five minutes. “The Chinese soldiers’ performance was very convincing,” said the team leader.
Among all the twelve assessment items, the Chinese peacekeeping helicopter detachment won the highest score, attained “Excellent” in eleven items and “Very Good” in one item.
The assessment team finally stated that they expect Chinese first peacekeeping helicopter team to achieve more and better results and make greater contributions to promoting the peace process in Darfur.
