One of the major sources of national motivation of Bangladesh for Global Peace is the glorious Liberation War. In 1971, the nation experienced genocide, persecution, suffering, displacement, torture and horror of humanitarian crisis. That enables the people of Bangladesh to better understand the plight of a distressed population/nation.

 

Another major source of the inspiration is Constitutional Obligation. The vow for establishing peace and security that emanates from the principles enshrined in the Constitution of Bangladesh. The Preamble to the Constitution reads “We may prosper in freedom and may make our full contribution towards international peace and co-operation in keeping with the progressive aspirations of mankind”.

 

Besides, the national intent is clearly pronounced through the foreign policy of Bangladesh. One of the four basic principles of the foreign policy is “Friendship to all, malice towards none”. It also formulates “World Peace” as one of the basic principles of her foreign policy. There are various significance of these principles such as Bangladesh believes in ‘culture of cooperation’ over ‘culture of conflict’, peaceful settlement of disputes and peaceful changes in international arena.

 

Protection of civilian is the most important mandate of UN Peace Operations these days. Culturally, Bangladesh Armed Forces’ ‘Social Face’ is predominant over ‘Warrior Face’; ‘Protecting People’ is predominant over ‘Fighting Enemy’. Therefore, Bangladesh considers UN mission as probing grounds for the Armed Forces as ‘Protector of People’. Peacekeepers of Bangladesh are also motivated as such.

Though very little, Bangladesh also considers the economic supplement to the nation from UN through Peace Operations as a source of recognition.

 

 

Photo: A Team of 15 Army Officers in 1988 (UNIIMOG)

 

The journey of Bangladeshi peacekeepers attiring the Blue Helmet began in 1988 by sending 15 observers to United Nations Iraq-Iran military observer group mission (UNIIMOG). Bangladesh Police joined in the next year (1989). Subsequently, Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Air Force joined United Nations peacekeeping operations in 1993. Bangladesh Armed Forces has always been responding promptly to the United Nation's call for strengthening world peace and stability by contributing her troops including the police contingents for peacekeeping. Till date, Bangladesh has successfully completed 54 Peace Keeping Operations in around 40 countries where 1, 46,095 peacekeepers from Bangladesh Armed Forces have taken part. Bangladesh is one of the leading troops contributing country with a total of 5,896 peacekeepers deployed in 09 countries.

 

Current Deployment

Country	Name of Mission
DR Congo	MONUSCO
Lebanon	UNIFIL
South Sudan	UNMISS
Western Sahara	MINURSO
Mali	MINUSMA
CAR	MINUSCA
Sudan (Abeyei)	UNISFA
Yemen	UNMHA
Netherlands	Deployed as Expert in UN Country Team, Netherlands
USA (New York)	UNHQ

 

Completed Deployment

 

Country	Name of Mission
Afghanistan Afghanistan-Pakistan	UNAMA UNSMA/UNGOMAP
Angola	UNAVEM & UNAVEM III
Bosnia	UNMIBH
Burundi	BINUB
Cambodia	UNAMIC / UNTAC/UNMLT
Congo	MONUC
Croatia/East Slovenia	UNTAES
East Timor	UNAMET / UNTAET / UNMISET
Ethiopia / Eritrea	UNMEE
Georgia	UNOMIG
Haiti	UNMIH / MNF/MINUSTAH
Iraq	UNGCI/UNMOVIC
Iran	UNIIMOG
Ivory Coast	MINUCI/ONUCI/UNOCI
Kosovo	UNMIK
Kuwait	UNIKOM
Liberia	UNOMIL/UNMIL
Macedonia	UNPREDEP
Mozambique	ONUMOZ
Namibia	UNTAG
Rwanda	UNAMIR
Sierra Leone	UNAMSIL/ UNIOSIL
Somalia	UNOSOM-I –II/AMISOM
Sudan	UNMIS
Tajikistan	UNMOT
Uganda / Rwanda	UNOMUR
Yugoslavia (Former)	UNPROFOR / UNMOP
CAR & Chad	MINURCAT
Sudan (Darfur)	UNAMID
West Africa	UNOWA
Kenya (Nairobi)	UNSOA
Syria	UNSMIS
Somalia	UNSOM
Office of the African Union	UNOAU
Cyprus	UNFICYP