By Huang Shifeng
BEIRUT, Aug. 18 -- Brigadier General LuisJesús Fernández Herrero, Sector East Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), issued a letter of commendation on August 16 to the 18th Chinese peacekeeping medical contingent to Lebanon to express gratitude for the medical support. This is the third commendation letter received from the UNIFIL Sector East Commander during the contingent’s one-year mission period.
The 18th and 19th Chinese medical contingents to Lebanon held a peacekeeping mission handover ceremony on the same morning. Brig. Gen. Herrero, together with the commanders of more than ten troop-contributing countries, including Spain, Brazil, Indonesia, and Serbia, and representatives of the Lebanese government troops attended the ceremony.
In his speech, Brig. Gen. Herrero made a strong pitch for the outstanding performance and extraordinary achievements of the Chinese peacekeeping medical contingent, and expressed sincere gratitude for their contribution to the UNIFIL Sector East.
He believes that the Chinese peacekeepers not only provides high-quality medical services to the UNIFIL troop-contributing countries but is also the most trustworthy partner in the completion of peacekeeping missions. He said: "The humanitarian assistance provided by Chinese peacekeepers to Lebanon fully demonstrates that China is a peace-loving country."
The then UNIFIL Sector East Commanders Brigadier General Rafael Colomer Martinez Del Peral and Brigadier General Marcos Llago Navarro had respectively issued a commendation letter to the 18th Chinese peacekeeping medical contingent to extend their heartfelt thanks for their quality services in November last year and this April.
It is learnt that the 18th medical contingent consists of 30 service members, mainly responsible for such tasks as daily medical security, emergency medical rescue, and evacuation of the sick and the wounded for more than 4,000 military and civilian personnel in UNIFIL Sector East. It also offered humanitarian medical assistance to local Lebanese people within its available resources.
At present, the UNIFIL has a total of more than 10,000 peacekeeping troops and nearly 1,000 civilian personnel, deployed in Sector East and Sector West.
