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The United Nations' first all-female peacekeeping force of more than 100 Indian crack policewomen arrived in Liberia Tuesday to help with peace-building in the war-battered west African country.
The world body has never deployed an all-women unit before, according to Mohamed Alhassan, the police commander at the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
"This is a very important occasion as this is the first all-female police force in the history of the United Nations and they have come to contribute to the peace-building process in Liberia," said Alhassan receiving the outfit.
The paramilitary policewomen -- who have served in India's worst flashpoints, from insurgency-hit Kashmir to the restive northeast -- will spend at least six months in Liberia emerging from years of civil war.
Liberia went through one of the most brutal wars in Africa for 14 years until 2003 when warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor stepped down to go into exile in Nigeria.
The war claimed an estimated 270,000 lives, according to a UN report.
Since the conflict's end, the UN has stationed more than 1,000 police personnel, 14,595 troops and nearly 200 military observers there to keep a fragile peace and restore normalcy in the devastated nation.
India is a longtime contributor to UN peacekeeping missions and has sent women as part of earlier units.
Dressed in sky blue camouflage uniform, the 103 women police -- all volunteers -- led by their commander, Seema Dhundia stepped out of a chartered Boeing 727 at Roberts International airport 50 kilometres (30 miles) out of Monrovia Tuesday afternoon.
Female peacekeepers are seen as bringing a different style to international policing by appearing less threatening and more approachable for women and children.
Alhassan said the contingent will be deployed across the country where they will be help in general security duties, "and also gender violence and not forgetting aggression against children."
He also expressed the hope that the Indians' presence in Liberia, a country led by Africa's first democratically elected female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, would encourage Liberian women to join their country's revamped police force.
He said the Indian policewomen's "presence here is very significant in the sense that (you) ... will encourage Liberian women to join the newly UN formed police in Liberia."
Liberia's police force is also headed by a woman, Munah Sieh.
Dhundhia said her concern in Liberia "will be to assist the Liberian national police force in maintaining law and order."
Most of the 1,240 police in Liberia come mainly from Nigeria and Pakistan, among them have been only 42 women so far, according to Alhassan.
UNMIL is training the new police force for war-shattered Liberia.
More than 2,000 young Liberian police officers have graduated and been deployed across the country. In all 3,500 policemen are to be trained.
Without releasing details, the UNMIL police chief admitted:
"In such a mission, you will have always have some cases of tragedy. Since we have been here we have been having so many cases."
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Liberia-India-UN-conflict-peacekeepers
AFP 302010 GMT 01 07
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