Army Commander Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya en route for Haiti to inspect operational duties of the Peacekeeping troops serving the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) had a stopover at UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in New York and met Lt. Gen. Babacar Gaye, Military Adviser and UN Assistant Secretary for Department of Peacekeeping Operations on Friday.
Lt. Gen Jayasuriya during his visit to the official headquarters of the United Nations as the first item on his agenda had one to one discussion with Lt. Gen. Babacar Gaye, Military Adviser and UN Assistant Secretary for Department of Peacekeeping Operations.
He recalled healthy relations and strong bonds of goodwill, being maintained between Sri Lanka Army and UN Peacekeeping missions ever since the first contingent of Sri Lankan Peacekeeping missions arrived in Haiti way back in the year 2004. Towards the end of the discussion, the Commander presented a memento to the UN Peacekeeping official as a token of memory of the meeting.
On the sidelines of the UN meeting, the visiting Commander had a brief meeting with Sri Lanka’s Permanent UN Representative in New York Dr Palitha Kohona on the same day. Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva, Deputy UN Representative was also associated with this meeting.
MINUSTAH, a UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti that has been in operation since 2004 is composed of 8,940 military personnel and 3,711 Police and concentrates on assisting the Haitian National Police, maintenance of law and order, provision of humanitarian aid, community projects, etc.
As at present, a 950 strong Sri Lankan contingent is serving in Haiti for the MINUSTAH.