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.
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