Kathmandu, May 28
Corporal
Suraj Lamichhane and Private Debi Ram Jaisi are being honoured posthumously
with Dag Hammarskjold medal from the United Nations.
The
UN honours those who lost their lives for the cause of peace. Lamichhane died
while serving in the Central African Republic in 2025 and Jaisi died while
serving in East Timor in 2000.
The International
Day of United Nations Peacekeepers will
be observed around the world to pay tribute to all women and men
serving in UN peacekeeping, and to honour the memory of
those who have lost their lives in the cause of peace.
On 5 June at the UN Headquarters,
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will lay a wreath
to honour peacekeepers and preside over a ceremony at which the
Dag Hammarskjöld Medal will be awarded posthumously to 68 military, police,
and civilian peacekeepers, who paid the ultimate price in the line of
duty, including 59 who perished last year, the UN informed in a statement on
Thursday.
Currently, more than 50,000 civilian, military and police
peacekeepers serve under the UN flag in some of the world’s most complex
environments, where conflicts are increasingly fragmented, protracted, and
shaped by emerging threats, including the misuse of digital tools and
the spread of harmful information. A total of 118 countries
currently contribute uniformed personnel to 11 peacekeeping
missions.
Nepal is the largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN
Peacekeeping. It currently contributes more than 4,300 military and police
person – including 364 women – to the UN peace operations in Abyei, the Central
African Republic, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kosovo, Lebanon,
Libya, the Middle East, Somalia, South Sudan and Western Sahara.
The
General Assembly established the Day back in 2002 and
selected May 29 as it was the day in 1948 when the Security Council established the
first UN Peacekeeping operation, the United Nations Truce Supervision
Organization in the Middle East.
In
his message, Secretary-General António Guterres said that in
an era of rising tensions, peacekeeping is a proven and cost-effective way
to restore stability and hope. But it requires steady political backing – and
reliable financial support.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 29 May 2026.
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