Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) personnel bound for Iraq have been reminded to maintain the peacekeeping standards and strong relationships established by their predecessors.

The comment was made yesterday by Minister for Youth and Sports Laisenia Tuitubou, a former commanding officer of the Engineers Corps of the RFMF, to the 106 soldiers at the Black Rock Camp in Nadi.

“The high standards achieved by Fijian personnel in United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping have been a focus of national pride and has earned Fiji considerable praise in the international community,” Mr Tuitubou said.

“Strong relationships lie at our core and we are here to align efforts, working as one team to make the UN peacekeeping system the best it can be because this is in the best interest of civilians who are caught between warring parties through no fault of their own.”

Since the 1970s, the RFMF had served in Bosnia, Herzegovinia, Cambodia, Croatia, Dafur, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Liberia, Sinai, Namibia, Solomon Islands, Rwanda, Somalia, Southern Sudan and Timor-Leste.

He said strong leadership was something the world needed irrespective of the different backgrounds, experiences and places that influenced how they viewed the various security challenges.

“But we have a common goal … to protect the innocent. UN peacekeeping operations are not solutions for the world’s problems, but they are critical for enabling peace and stability, protecting innocent parties from violence and rebuilding post-conflict societies,” Mr Tuitubou said.

He said in an increasingly complex security enviroment, UN peacekeeping has reached peak levels in terms of demand, risk and cost.

In addition, the Youth and Sports Minister stressed that peacekeeping was not only important to the UN, but for Fiji as well.

WARNING FOR INSUBORDINATION

Mr Tuitubou reminded the RFMF personnel of the importance of observing the chain of command because it maintained order in the military and how it performed its duties in the most efficient way possible.

“If a service member behaves in a way that disrupts the chain of command, he or she should be reprimanded for insubordination, therefore I encourage all to respect your chain of command and to know your respective responsibilities,” he said.

He said given the huge amount of experience that the RFMF had with peacekeeping operations, adapting and acclimatising to the environment should not be an issue.

“We know what good units in the field looks like and that good units and leaderships make or break missions. We do not need to reinvent the peacekeeping system for it to reach its full potential, Instead, we should encourage meritocracy that allows the system to flourish,” Mr Tuitubou said.

Edited by Epineri Vula

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