Bao Bao, who finished his one-year tour of duty as head of Group One of the United Nation's Bureau of Law Enforcement and Patrol in Monrovia, capital of Liberia, returned home to Zhejiang Province on January 23, only to find his grandmother had passed away six months earlier.

She had made sure that Bao was not told of her serious illness. "She didn't want to upset me in my job as a UN peacekeeping policeman," Bao said.

"And I repaid her love and high expectations of me with my work," said Bao, who received a UN Peace Medal last year.

One day on patrol, Bao and his colleagues helped ease a severe traffic jam caused by a funeral procession.

Bao said: "The people called out 'God bless you, Chinese'."

China is now one of the countries awarded the most peace honor medals.

Nearly 30 Chinese peacekeeping police officers are still serving under the UN flag in Liberia and Sudan to help reconstruct their legal systems and reform their law enforcement forces, as well as protect human rights, and assist in humanitarian relief efforts.

Guo Baoshan, deputy director-general of the ministry's International Cooperation Department, said in an earlier interview that the Chinese government always gives "active support" to the UN peacekeeping operations.

He stressed that once dispatched, Chinese peacekeeping police officers work as UN employees. "They don't receive any orders from the Chinese government while being on duty with the UN mission."

Ministry figures show that China has dispatched 94 police officers to Liberia and Sudan since its first team arrived in Africa in 2003. They face great danger and challenges because of unrest, as well as water shortages, blackouts and various diseases.

Meanwhile, according to the Peacekeeping Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense, 1,546 Chinese UN peacekeeping soldiers and officers are on active duty with 218 in the Congo, 558 in Liberia, 435 in Sudan and 335 in Lebanon.

Since 1990, China has joined 15 UN peacekeeping operations with more than 6,000 personnel participating.

(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2007)