The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) for South Sudan and Head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) David Shearer recently granted an interview to the reporter of the People’s Army Newspaper (PAN) on the occasion of the deployment of Vietnam’s Level-two Field Hospital (L2FH) No.1 to the UNMISS.

Sharing with the PAN’s reporter on the occasion that Vietnam has for the first time sent its military medical unit to a UN peacekeeping mission, he said that the UNMISS is happy with and highly appreciates the participation of Vietnam in UN peacekeeping operations, especially when this is the first time that the country has sent a military unit to implement the medical mission of the UN.

He knew that Vietnam’s military medicine is prestigious at home but this is a giant leap of the Vietnamese sector while joining UN peacekeeping operations.

David Shearer answering the reporter of the People's Army Newspaper.

The role of Vietnam will, therefore, also change. Bentiu is one of the biggest bases of the UNMISS. UN forces working in Bentiu are providing protection for more than 100,000 South Sudanese in Protection of Civilians (PoC) areas. The responsibility is, therefore, very high and we rely on the level-two field hospital of Vietnam, in terms of medical services, to fulfill this job.

According to the UN official, the UNMISS is in good need of a L2FH and the UNMISS staff was really happy when learning about the deployment of the L2FH No.1 of Vietnam. He believes in the English command of the hospital’s troops which will facilitate the two sides in communicating with each other. For all that he knows, he affirmed that the UNMISS staff is confident in the competence of the hospital’s staff.

Vietnam is working on the preparation for the deployment of its engineer company to one of the UN peacekeeping missions and hopefully it will be UNMISS. Giving his comment on this information, SRSG David Shearer stressed that the mission warmly welcomes the military engineers of Vietnam. The biggest problem now in South Sudan is the quality of the road system. In Vietnam, people do not have to worry about the road system; however, in South Sudan, a lot of the roads are not asphalted. The country needs to focus on building its infrastructure and he believes in the capabilities of the military engineers of Vietnam when supporting South Sudan in building roads.

The UN officials knew that Vietnam has been participating in UN peacekeeping operations for five years now and that, although five years is a short period of time, Vietnam has proven to the world its increasingly active performance, showing the pro-active role of Vietnam in joining UN peacekeeping operations. At the interview, SRSG David Shearer expressed his great joy and pride when Vietnam chose to send its medical troops to the UNMISS for shouldering UN peacekeeping duties./.

( VNF/PANO )