RI officers sent to Angola

RI officers sent to Angola

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia has sent a delegation of police
officers as observers to a United Nations peacekeeping mission in
Angola.

Lt. Gen. Soeyono, the Armed Forces (ABRI) chief of general
affairs, said on Friday, while sending off the Indonesian
delegation to the UN mission, that the nation had once again been
asked by the United Nations to join in a peace endeavor.

The delegation, which left under the banner of the 18th Garuda
Contingent, is led by Lt. Col. Harry Sasongko and consists of
eight captains and three middle-ranking officers, Antara
reported. The delegation will join other police observers in the
third United Nations Angola Verification Mission.

This latest mission came in the wake of a visit to Indonesia
by UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who used the
occasion to appeal to his host to continue to take part in future
UN peacekeeping missions.

Indonesia's Garuda Contingent has preciously served in similar
missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia, Cambodia and many other
world trouble spots during the past 30 years.

This is the first time, however, that Indonesia has sent a
delegation to Angola, a former Portuguese colony which has been
ravaged by bloody civil wars since Lisbon ceded control of the
territory. (emb)