Withdrawing Japanese peacekeepers based in Takeo province handed over more than U.S.

$11 million worth of equipment and goods to government representatives on Sept. 12.

The donation included medical supplies, construction equipment, furniture, maintenance

facilities and food supply materials.

For the benefit of the local community, the military barracks of the Japanese engineering

battalion, which included 14 big and 26 small apartments was also converted into

a Regional Development Center.

At the handing-over ceremony, Japanese Ambassador Yukio Imagawa and Sok An and Veng

Sereyvuth, both co-ministers in charge of the Offices of the Council of Ministers

signed an agreement that the donated equipment would be used for the purpose of promoting

the economic and social development of Cambodia and the well-being of its people.

More than 600 hundred Japanese troops were involved in the Cambodian peacekeeping

mission, Tokyo's first overseas military operation since the end of World War II.

Imagawa called the mission a success and an experience his country would be able

to learn from for future peacekeeping tasks. The last engineering unit was scheduled

to pull out on Sept 26 .

Conveying a message from the Provisional National Government, Sok An and Veng Sereyvuth

expressed profound gratitude to the Japanese government and people for their contribution

to the peacekeeping operation and offered condolences to the relatives of the two

Japanese who were killed in violent attacks during the mission. One, a district electoral

officer was shot dead in Kompong Thom and the other, a civilian police officer died

in an ambush blamed on the Khmer Rouge near the Thai border.

After signing the agreement, the delegation went to attend the flag raising ceremony,

where Japanese peacekeepers were standing in lines in front of the flag poles. Two

pairs of Japanese soldiers came up to pull the U.N. and Japanese flags down, and

to replace them with a Cambodian one.