Question: Who won the prestigious Dag Hammarskjold medal for 2019 recently?
(a) Michel Punto
(b) Manish Kumar
(c) Jitendra Kumar
(d) Jagdish Kumar
Answer: (c)
Related facts:
- Indian Policemen Jitendra Kumar won the prestigious Dag Hammarskjold medal posthumously for giving his life during the peacekeeping mission in the war affected Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- He was honoured by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on May 24, 2019.
- The medal was awarded at the UN headquarters during a special tea reception hosted by India’s Permanent Mission to the UN.
Awardees:
- Jitendra was among the 119 other men and women to be awarded the medal for their courage and sacrifice in the line of duty, laid down his life while serving in the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Central African country.
- The award was received by India’s envoy to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin on his behalf.
- The recipients for this year’s award included military and police personnel, international civil servants, national staff and UN Volunteers from 38 countries who served in 12 different UN peace operations around the world.
- Since 1948, more than 3,800 peacekeepers have lost their lives in the 72 peacekeeping missions.
- The missions in Mali, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Lebanon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are among the most dangerous that we have ever undertaken.
- A total of 98 military, police and civilian peacekeepers from 36 countries lost their life last year in the peacekeeping mission.
Dag Hammarskjold Medal:
- This medal is named after the UN’s second Secretary-General who died in a plane crash in the Congo in 1961.
- He was there trying for a peace agreement to end the conflict in the country.
- India is the fourth largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN peacekeeping contributing to more than 6,400 military and police personnel to the UN peace operations currently in areas like Abyei, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, etc.
Links:
https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/indian-police-officer-honoured-posthumously-for-contribution-to-un-peacekeeping/article27246813.ece
https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2019-05-24/remarks-dag-hammarskj%C3%B6ld-medal-ceremony
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/indian-peacekeeping-officer-posthumously-awarded-by-un/cid/1691207