e-magazine
The Hot Zone
China's newly announced air defense identification zone over the East China Sea aims to shore up national security
Current Issue
· Table of Contents
· Editor's Desk
· Previous Issues
· Subscribe to Mag
Subscribe Now >>
Expert's View
World
Nation
Business
Finance
Market Watch
Legal-Ease
North American Report
Forum
Government Documents
Expat's Eye
Health
Science/Technology
Lifestyle
Books
Movies
Backgrounders
Special
Photo Gallery
Blogs
Reader's Service
Learning with
'Beijing Review'
E-mail us
RSS Feeds
PDF Edition
Web-magazine
Reader's Letters
Make Beijing Review your homepage
Hot Links

cheap eyeglasses
Market Avenue
eBeijing

China's Response
Special> Earthquake in Haiti> China's Response
UPDATED: January 19, 2010
China Holds Homecoming Ceremony for Peacekeepers Killed in Haiti Quake
Share

China held an emotional homecoming ceremony for eight peacekeeping police officers, who were killed in the Haiti earthquake last week, at the Beijing Capital International Airport on Tuesday morning.

State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu presided over the ceremony.

Zhou Yongkang, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, joined families and colleagues of the police officers as their coffins were escorted by armed police officers off the China Southern Airlines Boeing 747. The plane landed in Beijing earlier on Tuesday.

Frequent smothered weepings broke out from the mourners who were all dress in dark and carried banners reading, "Salute to the peacekeeping heroes," and "Deep condolences to Chinese peacekeeping police officers."

Many of them carried pictures of the disceased, and boards that read, "My brother, I am here to get you home."

Wearing a white paper flower attached to his chest and a black armband, Zhou led the mourners to bow three times before the coffins draped in Chinese national flags.

"We stand here heavy-hearted," Zhou said in a speech delivered at the airport, after solemnly bowing once again to the coffins and pictures of the eight peacekeeping police officers.

The eight peacekeeping police officers were "outstanding representatives of China's police and excellent sons and daughters of the Chinese nation," he said.

Of the eight Chinese victims returned home, four were officers of China's peacekeeping force in Haiti, and the rest were in a team sent by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) to Haiti for peacekeeping consultations.

Their bodies were found in the debris of the UN mission headquarters in Port-au-Prince on Saturday and Sunday.

The MPS on Monday published the names of the eight police officers. They were: Zhu Xiaoping, 48, director of the ministry's equipment and finance department; Guo Baoshan, 60, deputy director of the ministry's international cooperation department; Wang Shulin, 58, and Li Xiaoming, 35, both researchers at the ministry, Zhao Huayu, 38, Li Qin, 47, Zhong Jianqin, 35, and He Zhihong, 35, all four with China's peacekeeping force in Haiti. They were all men except for He.

The eight police officers sacrificed their lives for the cause of world peace, Zhou said, adding that their sacrifices would not be forgotten by people in China, in Haiti, and across the world.

He said China was a peace-loving country, and that the country had fulfilled its international obligations and shouldered its responsibilities as a major power in the world by sending out peacekeeping police to other countries and regions in support of U.N. missions.

More than 1,500 Chinese peacekeeping police officers had been dispatched to seven countries and regions since 2000, he said, speaking highly of their contributions to world peace and harmony.

All mourners stood to attention at the end of the mourning ceremony as the coffins were carried amid a slow dirge to white eight hearses which left the airport for the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in western Beijing.

Before the ceremony, Zhou Yongkang visited representatives from families of eight Chinese peacekeeping police officers, and conveyed his condolences to them on behalf of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and the CPC Central Committee General Secretary Hu Jintao.

"The loss is a regret and deep sorrow for the Chinese people," Zhou Yongkang told the relatives.

"The Party and the government will definitely pull you through the tough time," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2010)



 
Top Story
-Protecting Ocean Rights
-Partners in Defense
-Fighting HIV+'s Stigma
-HIV: Privacy VS. Protection
-Setting the Tone
Most Popular
 
About BEIJINGREVIEW | About beijingreview.com | Rss Feeds | Contact us | Advertising | Subscribe & Service | Make Beijing Review your homepage
Copyright Beijing Review All right reserved