DUBLIN, Ireland, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Friday praised Ireland for fielding specialists for peacekeeping operations in Africa.
"Ireland has been one of the few industrialized states to deploy formed military units to sub-Saharan Africa, providing niche capabilities that really hold a peacekeeping operation together," he said in remarks to troops at McKee Barracks in Dublin, Ireland. Some of them will soon ship out to the U.N. Mission in Liberia.
Said Annan, "We need these specialist units very, very badly."
Looking to the broader picture, the secretary-general said U.N. peacekeeping benefits when diverse countries participate.
"U.N. peacekeeping is strongest when the entire range of member states participate on the ground, sending a signal of broad international commitment to the local parties -- and in particular to the people suffering the most direct impact of conflict," he said.
Annan said highly trained and specialized troops make the best peacekeepers.
Earlier in the week, during a visit to a peacekeeping training camp in Langfang, China, Annan similarly praised the specialists, but singled out the latest peacekeeping contingent Beijing dispatched to Haiti, the first for China in the Western Hemisphere.
