Medical care falls short for Chinese peacekeepers on UN mission front lines
Soldiers and police put lives on the line on UN missions, but lack of medicines and proper care makes job more difficult
Questions are being asked about the quality of medical care being provided to Chinese peacekeepers serving on UN missions around the world.
People’s Liberation Army soldier Zhang Kegong, who spent 16 months as a peacekeeper in Liberia, said medicines were hard to find in the West African country and medical equipment even scarcer. If a peacekeeper fractured a bone, the lack of an X-ray machine could necessitate their evacuation to a neighbouring country for treatment.
The inability to provide timely medical care probably led to at least one preventable death
China has been sending more peacekeepers abroad over the past decade and is planning to send even more in the future as it strengthens its presence in global affairs. But whether sufficient medical assistance is provided for such missions is often overlooked.
Zhang said he felt excited, and blessed to be on a sacred mission, when he landed in the Liberian capital Monrovia in March 2012 at the start of his deployment. He soon discovered that a lack of medical support was a problem for peacekeepers.
“A slight bone fracture is not difficult to cure, but in Liberia the patient needs time to be transferred to a neighbouring country simply because there’s not enough machines that can be used and a shortage of doctors capable of performing such surgery,” said Zhang, now 29 and still serving in the PLA.