KATHMANDU, JUL 12 - At a time when Nepal’s share of the United Nations peacekeeping pie in conflict flashpoints across the globe is decreasing, the Cabinet on Thursday decided to send 260 Nepal Army (NA) personnel to war-ravaged Syria . The Nepali peacekeepers will work under the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) which was set up in 2012. “Upon the request of the UN, the government has decided to dispatch 260 peacekeepers to Syria in two phases,” Minister for Information and Communications Madhav Poudel said after a Cabinet meeting. The fist contingent of 130 NA personnel will reach Syria by the end of July, while the remaining will head for the country in September, Poudel said. Nepal has been contributing troops to UN peacekeeping operations since 1958 and as many as 100,000 personnel have served in various conflict flashpoints in various capacities. In a recent meeting in Geneva on the sidelines of the ECOSOC gathering, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Minister for Foreign and Home Affairs Madhav Ghimire had discussed ‘new avenues of peacekeeping opportunities’ for Nepal. Accident insurance for journalists In other decisions taken on Thursday, the Cabinet agreed to give final shape to accident insurance for working journalists. A guideline prepared in this regard, which was briefly discussed in the Cabinet meeting, was later forwarded to the Bill Committee for approval. The meeting further decided to accept Rs 2.83 billion budgetary support from the World Bank. The amount will be spent for financial sector reforms. It also okayed an approach paper prepared by the National Planning Commission for 13 projects, while it approved a set of guidelines for exporting pebbles, boulders and for casino operations.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 04:25:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015