CRI听力:China's UN Peacekeeping Force to Step up Efforts to Protect Civilians

This year marks the 25th anniversary since China started contributing peacekeepers to United Nations peacekeeping missions across the globe.

Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic surge in the number of Chinese peacekeepers going abroad, with over 2-thouand troops, police officers and military observers deployed in ten different peacekeeping operations in North and sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Cyprus.

China is currently the largest contributor of peacekeeping troops among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

China's contributions to UN peacekeeping forces have been primarily engineers and medical staff building infrastructure and providing healthcare, rather than engaging in military activities.

However, Chinese authorities want to expand the scope of their on-the-ground operations to better protect civilians.

A new training program, launched in collaboration with the United Nations Women's Program, is giving a group of Chinese peacekeepers a chance to sharpen their skills on mitigating sexual violence, child protection and their understanding of the UN guidelines on the protection of civilians.

Zhou Zhe, Director of China's Peacekeeping Centre with the Ministry of Defense says protecting people in conflict zones is very challenging.

"In some situations, militants or combatants may hide their weapons and don civilian attire and hide in civilian areas. If we inadvertently protect such people, there is a risk that we might also get pulled into the conflict."

Cai Hui is a senior instructor at the peacekeeping center who has served on three-separate UN peacekeeping missions in the Democratic republic of Congo.

He says peacekeepers under the UN flag are often tasked with various duties.

"Our mission was to construct the damaged bridges and the roads in Congo. Also some quick impact projects – we helped to restore the airfields and helipads One important task was also to help the locals to build some IDP camps because many of them are displaced, they have no place to go. So that is our priority task."

The number of fatal attacks on UN peacekeepers has been rising in recent years.

Cai Hui says UN peacekeepers often find themselves in the middle of war-zones.

"Actually, there are a lot of attacks and ambushes not only against the civilians but also against peacekeepers. In 2012, when M23 occupied the city of Gouma, there were riots or chaos all around the country. At that time I was on a trip to Boonia. When I arrived at the airport I was told that we cannot leave the airport because there were attacks on the streets and direct attacks against UN peacekeepers. So we stayed at the airport for 4 days and 4 nights. So we didn't have anything to eat. They only gave us some combat rations. We heard gunshots everywhere around us."

The Chinese government has 560 million US dollars pledged to the UN peacekeeping budget this year, the 6th largest contributor.

Chinese authorities say their missions abroad under the UN flag demonstrate the country's global responsibility.

For CRI I'm Poornima Weerasekara.