Three Peacekeeping officers have received recognition awards from the Mongolian Army Commander for bravery and gallantry in discharging their duties in South Sudan.
One of them is Samoa Police Sergeant, Khamtahn Tsui Daniel Stanley, who is in South Sudan, based at Bentiu, Unity State reported as an ‘extremely hotspot.’
Other recipients are from Zambia and Nigeria. During a telephone discussion with his family in Apia, Mr. Stanley said he was not aware of any special activity they may have done except keeping safe from flying bullets!
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However, he recalls an incident where he directly confronted the District Commander to save a possible riot, fighting and killing!
In about August/September, the Commander visited the area just outside UN base and everybody did not know that his brother is one of the Internal Displace People (I.D.P) living inside the UN base.
This visit made the brother proud and started telling some people that he was the brother of the Commander. Even they did not know. On the day of the visit, about 100 people (I.D.P’s) waited inside near the entrance gate for the brother to return inside.
Most village people are anti-government and they support the militia after the December 15th crisis in 2013.
The government army won but skirmishes never stopped. Mr. Stanley said that through their intelligence sources, they learned that a strong
Sudanese army contingent was ready to pounce on the people of Bentiu so many of these people sought safety at their base.
He marched out and advised the Commander to remove his brother from the Post. All he was interested in was to maintain peace for the general population.
Two other army officers followed him and stood by while the negotiations were done. Although he noted the Mongolian Commander standing by, he did what he thought was best for the safety of all.
The District Commander objected against his brother seeking safety within their army compound but his argument was that it was safer if he was placed there temporarily until the anger had left the minds of the people. His main point was that the UN Post could not offer the safety his brother needed and it could result in massive attacks and endangerment to all of them.
The Commander finally agreed and soon the army marched away with the Commander.
It was at this time that after the usual shaking of hands, he turned and the Mongolian Army Commander saluted him. He returned the salute and everything was generally forgotten except for an inquiry about his name, rank, and country from the Mongolian Army Commander. It wasn’t until medal were presented to certain Mongolian Army soldiers that their names were announced and they received these certificates. Even his direct UN State Advisor was not aware of any award presentation. However, he has been appointed as Acting In-charge of Operations for his UNPOL base besides his present position as Police Advisor in the past six months or so.
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