2 Indian peacekeepers honoured posthumously with Dag Hammarskjold medals

United Nations: Brigadier Amitabh Jha and Havildar Sanjay Singh, who died while serving in peacekeeping missions, were honoured with the Dag Hammarskjold medals.

India’s Permanent Representative P Harish received the medals on Thursday (US time) from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at a ceremony honouring the peacekeepers who died in the service of the UN.

Jha was the acting force commander of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) that is deployed in the Golan Heights to monitor the ceasefire between Israel and Syria after the 1973 war.

Guterres said, “Jha served as acting Force Commander of UNDOF in complex circumstances, following the fall of the Assad Government in Syria. He will be remembered for his leadership and unwavering commitment to United Nations peacekeeping, including in the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) as a military observer from 2005 to 2006.

Jha “played a pivotal role in managing a critical security situation which evolved during the Syrian crisis in December 2024”, a citation from India said.

That month, the Damascus government of Bashar al-Assad collapsed, and the border area supervised by the UNDOF came under pressure from both Israel and disparate Syrian groups.

“Jha was a man who stood his ground — as was evident from the way he handled affairs of UNDOF as the acting force commander. He will be admired by his friends and detractors,” the citation said.

Singh served with MONUSCO when he died. Waibhav Anil Kale, a retired Indian Army colonel, also died last year while serving the UN in a civilian capacity in Gaza, the citation from India noted.

Kale was working as a security service coordinator for the UN when the vehicle he was travelling in came under attack from Israeli forces in Gaza’s Rafah region.

Thursday was observed as the 77th UN Peacekeepers Day, honouring the work of 61,353 peacekeepers, of whom 5,375 hailed from India.

Meanwhile, in New Delhi, the Indian Army held a ceremony at the National War Memorial to honour the memory of the Blue Helmets who died in the service of the UN.

Lieutenant General Rakesh Kapoor, the deputy chief of Army Staff, led the ceremony honouring the 182 Indian peacekeepers who died while on UN missions.

IANS