REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has committed himself to encouraging the participation of women in UN peacekeeping missions. "We must work harder to recruit women," Ban Ki-moon said in his general lecture at the Indonesian Peace and Security Center (IPSC), around 40 km south of Jakarta on Tuesday.

He was referring to the UN`s long-term plan for its peacekeeping troops. Speaking before several former UN peacekeeping troop members, Ban Ki-moon said during his term of office as UN chief he had significantly increased the number of women participating in the UN`s peacekeeping missions. "And I will continue to recruit women from all ranks and files," he said.

He noted that nearly 30 percent of the UN peacekeeping missions` civil officers were women, but only 9 percent of them came from the police and 4 percent were military personnel. "We must increase the number of women (in the missions) not only to meet the quota but also to set an example of gender equality. We must become better and women are the best to carry out this duty," he said.

Indonesia for the first time sent the Garuda I contingent to join the UN peacekeeping force in Egypt on January 8, 1957. It later dispatched the Garuda II and III contingents to the Congo in 1962. As of 2008, Indonesia had dispatched the Garuda XVI to support the peacekeeping efforts in South Lebanon.

According to data from the Indonesian Permanent Mission to UN in New York, Indonesia has sent a total of 1,972 military and police personnel to six different UN peacekeeping missions, including the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), and the United Nations Stabilization Mission In Haiti (UNSTAMIH).

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