1. UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING
OPERATIONS
AND BANGLADESH: AN OVERVIEW
Zahid Isalm

2.  The primary purpose of the United Nations is to maintain international peace
and security, and to that end to take, and to bring about by peaceful means,
and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law,
adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might
lead to a breach of the peace.1
----- Article I of the Charter of the United Nations

3. Peacekeeping
 The concept of ‘peacekeeping’ evolved in order to prevent dispute, persuade
opposition parties for dialogue rather than violence as well as bring about
peaceful solution to dispute and build sustainable peace process around the
world.
 According to the United Nations, peacekeeping means,
The deployment of international military and civilian personnel to a conflict
area with the consent of the parties to the conflict in order to stop or contain
hostilities or supervise the carrying out of a peace agreement assist with
humanitarian relief, human rights compliance and nation building

4. Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force
 first deployments came in 1988, when it participated in two operations -
UNIIMOG in Iraq and UNTAG in Namibia.
 Bangladesh Army has been involved in up to thirty different UNPKO's
covering as many as twenty five countries.
 This has included activities in Namibia, Cambodia, Somalia, Uganda, Rwanda,
Mozambique, former Yugoslavia, Liberia, Haiti, Tajikistan, Western Sahara,
Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Georgia, East Timor, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire and Ethiopia.
 As of October 2014, Bangladesh contributed the highest number of total
personnel to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations; with 8,758 personnel
attached to various UN peacekeeping forces worldwide.

5. Casualties
 eighty eight Bangladesh peacekeepers have lost their lives.
 In 2008, the BBC in described the Bangladeshi UN Force as The Cream of UN
Peacekeepers.
 The performance of Bangladesh's contingents has been described as being of
the highest order and the appointment of several senior Bangladesh military
officers as the Commander of UN peacekeeping missions

6. THANK YOU