Medals for Sri Lankan peacekeepers as controversy over UN deployment continues

by Thusiyan
Dec 17, 2021

Sri Lanka soldiers serving with the United Nations mission in Lebanon were awarded with medals last month, as they continued to be deployed with the global body despite calls for Sri Lankan troops to be banned.

Troops with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had medals pinned on them by UNIFIL Head of the Mission and the Force Commander Major General Stefano Del Col.

Soldiers then put on a drill display and a “special dog talent show” as Sri Lankan, UN and Lebanese flags were waved.

The ceremony comes despite increasing concern over abuses by Sri Lanka’s military following the scathing UN High Commissioner’s report earlier this year and increasing calls for a ban on deploying Sri Lankan troops for UN peacekeeping missions. In the High Commissioner’s report, she calls on the UN to “keep under review Sri Lanka’s contributions to UN peacekeeping operations and screening systems for Sri Lanka personnel”.

The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) has called for the suspension of all Sri Lankan peacekeepers following the release of the UN human rights commissioners report. The report highlighted that the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, which is responsible for the vetting of Sri Lankan troops, has been "politicised and its independence undermined by the appointment of a former Government minister as its chairperson" the ITJP stated in a press release. 

The deployment of Sri Lankan forces comes despite grievous human rights abuses during peacekeeping missions. In 2007, over 100 Sri Lankan peacekeepers were implicated in a child sex ring in Haiti. Sri Lankan troops were accused of exchanging food and money for sex with girls and boys as young as 12. While most of the accused were repatriated, none have been criminally prosecuted.

Read more here: UN peacekeepers in Haiti ‘fathered hundreds of babies’ with young girls with violence and coercion

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