Cambodian blue helmets sharpen military expertise
SOME 170 Cambodian peacekeepers recently participated in a workshop focused on the dissemination of laws, subdecrees and procedures for managing weapons and explosives.
The National Centre for Peacekeeping Forces (NPMEC) orchestrated this event in partnership with the General Department of Technical Equipment from the Ministry of National Defence.
The January 8 workshop – presided over by Heng Thou, deputy director-general of NPMEC, and Son Kimsorn, deputy head of the General Department of Technical Equipment and director of the Armor Equipment department – aimed to enhance the peacekeepers’ knowledge in this critical domain.
“With this workshop, we aim to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of managing weapons, explosives and ammunition within the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces [RCAF]. Our goal is to prevent any illegal use of weapons by the RCAF,” he said.
Soeun Sam, an international relations researcher at the Royal Academy of Cambodia (RAC), noted the significance of this training for peacekeepers in bolstering Cambodia’s military capabilities.
“Comprehending the intricacies of weapons, ammunition and crime prevention management holds paramount importance in this era of technology. With the swift dissemination
of information, whether positive or negative, our forces must adeptly respond to and mitigate criminal activities. Allowing untoward incidents can significantly influence social stability, particularly casting a shadow on the government’s
image,” he said.
He added that this knowledge is crucial to prevent hostility from uncontrollable arms trafficking and explosions, particularly for the blue helmet forces committed to maintaining global security within the UN framework.
In the last 17 years, Cambodia has dispatched 9,281 blue helmets, 763 of them women, to UN missions in Sudan, South Sudan, Chad, Central African Republic, Lebanon, Mali, Cyprus, Syria, Yemen and Congo, as reported by the NPMEC.