182 SAF PERSONNEL SET OFF FOR UN PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS

A send-off ceremony was held for 182 Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) peacekeepers at SAFTI Military Institute on 1 Mar.

They will be leaving to serve in two United Nations missions overseas. Some 181 of them will head for Timor-Leste to serve in the United Nations Mission of Support for East Timor (UNMISET), while one SAF officer will go to the Middle East to serve in the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM).

Family members of the personnel as well as senior Ministry of Defence and SAF officers witnessed the ceremony, which saw Minister of State for Defence, Mr Cedric Foo, and Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Defence and National Development, Associate Professor Koo Tsai Kee, affixing the State Flag insignia onto the peacekeepers' uniforms.

Of the UNMISET-bound personnel, 148 are from the Army. 123 of them will be deployed in Mar in the south-western district of Cova-Lima. They will replace the peacekeepers who have been in Timor-Leste since last Oct.

Two SAF servicemen will serve as interpreters in the Oecussi district of Timor-Leste, while the rest will serve in various staff positions in the Peacekeeping Force Headquarters.

The other 33 servicemen are from the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF). They will replace members of the RSAF helicopter detachment stationed in Suai (south-western Timor-Leste) since last Oct.