UN, India deploy women troops

2006-10-04 12:00

New Delhi - The United Nations and India have agreed on the deployment of 125 Indian policewomen as peacekeepers in Liberia, the first time the world body has used an all-female unit, say officials.

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) spokesperson Abhisekh Dayal said: "A memorandum of understanding between the UN and India has now been signed in New York and our unit will leave for Liberia later this month."

The officers, aged between 25 and 30, were to be deployed for a possible six-month tour of duty in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, which was emerging from years of savage civil war.

Poonam Gupta, a senior officer with the CRPF, said: "Our girls are now fully-trained in everything - language and communication skills, martial arts, weaponry, rescue and full-scale combat."

Many of the policewomen had served in Kashmir, where Islamic guerrillas had been fighting Indian troops since 1989, or in India's insurgency-torn northeast.

India was a longtime contributor to UN peacekeeping missions and had sent women as part of earlier units. But, the UN had described India's move to deploy female officers in policing as "unprecedented".

Liberia's civil war, which claimed more than 200 000 lives, ended in 2003 after African leaders persuaded warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor to step down. He was now on trial for war crimes in The Hague.

- AFP