If one looks at the countries that the Bangladeshi forces are deployed in at present, most of them are in Africa and all of them are ridden by violence of the worst nature, driven by internal conflicts that are more difficult to handle than those that require interposition of UN troops or observers between belligerents. It needs no repetition that Bangladesh's participation in peace support operations on behalf of the UN has enhanced its image globally.

A very interesting feature of our participation is the readiness to take on varied responsibilities, from missions that involve only a few observers to peace enforcement missions involving more than a brigade group of composite force. And, in spite of critical challenges at home, our contribution has continued unhampered. Even reverses in the form of casualties suffered by our officers and men have not affected the level of our participation in UN peace missions.

There are 115 UN members who are contributing, or have contributed, to a UN undertaking, peacekeeping, which was not originally in its charter to start with. The concept of "peacekeeping" subsequently emerged when the need was felt to provide diplomatic space to the belligerents to sort matters out, by interposing the Blue Helmets between the contesting parties in a situation that was short of peace enforcement as stipulated in Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

The whole concept of keeping peace has transformed into broad categories of peace activity that is now very appropriately called peace support operations, that include peacekeeping, peacemaking and peace enforcement, performed and participated, broadly speaking, by military observers and contingents with robust defensive capabilities.

Although the first call to Bangladesh to participate in UN peace mission was made in 1980, the Namibia mission fell through eventually, and it was not until eight years later that a contingent from Bangladesh army participated in a UN mission, as a part of the military observer group in Iraq-Iran in 1988. The rest is history.

Since then, it has for many years been one of the leading troops contributing countries in the world, and is currently a very close second. It was in 1988, too, that the Nobel Peace prize was awarded to UN Peacekeeping; which means that the peace prize was bestowed upon every one of the peacekeepers who had participated in the UN peace missions till then.

In other words, to restate what the UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, Renata Dessallien, said in this regard, that there are 30 Bangladesh army officers who had won the Nobel Peace Prize almost 20 years before Prof Yunus. This is something that very few in Bangladesh are aware of.

This was for the first time that we celebrated the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, since the UN first declared it in 2000. And there could not have been a more befitting way of celebrating it than recognising the services of our peacekeepers, who died in the course of keeping peace in four continents of the world, by honouring the fathers and mothers and wives and children of the martyred soldiers.

Many were killed in accidents, and many were victims of hostile actions of one or the other party that they had gone to keep peace between. It is a pity that very few among the most informed in our country are aware of the valour of these young men. But that is only to be expected from a society whose members (some of them) not very long ago were calling for doing away with the armed forces, it being totally unproductive and all expenditures on its account, according to them, were wasteful. Just for the record, our peacekeeping operations will fetch us close to Taka two billion this year.

What make the Bangladesh peacekeepers standout amongst the more than 80,000 international peacekeepers in 15 countries? My experience of UN peacekeeping tells me that Bangladeshi officers and men are fully aware of the background of the conflict, and extremely sensitive about the psyche of the different warring factions involved in the conflict. They are firm and fair in handling situations where each of the parties thinks that it is the only one, which is right and it is the other party that is in violation of the terms of the peace agreement.

There is no dearth of efforts by the warring parties to seek loopholes in the agreement, which they then most adroitly exploit. And it is done to test out not only the resolve of the peacekeepers in upholding the mandate but also the UN system itself. And it is a matter of great pride for us that never have our troops let our country or the UN down, in spite of heavy odds.

Several instances stand out as shinning examples of the dedication and courage of our officers and men. There is Bihac in former Yugoslavia where, under seige by both the Croats and the Bosnians for long ten weeks, they did not give up on their duty nor yield to hostile pressure. And Somalia stands out as another instance of their integrity and guts.

At a time when some countries known for their military might decided to withdraw, the Bangladeshis were the last to pull out, having provided safe passage to all the others, and after having successfully protected the US base, all by themselves. But for the role of the Bangladeshi contingent in the pacification program that helped the holding of a successful election in Sierra Leon, a different saga would have been scripted about it.

And, contrary to the expressed fear of the language problem, the Bangladesh contingent in Congo has helped not only to stabilize the situation but also in the deployment of other contingents in the country.

The ramification of the timely action in preventing the Comfort Zone in Ivory Coast from falling into the hands of the government forces is all too well appreciated by those who were directly and indirectly affected by the event.

There is much that the nation owes to our peacekeepers. Our peace missions, of which there are 11 at the moment, have played the role of that of our ambassadors. They have accorded us diplomatic dividends, but more than that they have demonstrated our resolve and our commitment to peace, both at home and abroad, and ensured that the sacrifice of 76 of our peacekeepers who gave up their lives has not gone in vain.

The author is Editor, Defence and Strategic Affairs, The Daily Star.