RP Peacekeepers Set for Iraq’s Badlands

MANILA, 7 June 2003 — A long-delayed Philippine peacekeeping mission is to finally fly to Iraq at the end of the month to take up its post in a volatile region between Baghdad and Basra, Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said yesterday. The 75-member contingent would be put in a sector where Poland has overall supervision, and would be working closely with counterpart missions from Bulgaria and Latvia, Ople told a news conference. He expressed confidence that the Filipinos would be able to handle the situation, saying some members are veterans of UN peacekeeping missions in East Timor and Cambodia. The 175-member Philippine mission, including 75 military and police peacekeepers, was scaled down version from the original plan to send 500.