About 1000 ex-servicemen, women and their families attended the first ceremony to commemorate the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers at the National Memorial site at Veiuto yesterday.
It also marked the 70th Anniversary since the United Nations Security Council authorised the establishment of the first United Nations peacekeeping operations on the 29th of May 1948.
President and Former Commanding Officer to UNIFIL in Lebanon in 1978, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau who was the Chief Guest at the event laid the first wreath as part of the wreath laying ceremony as a tribute to those who have lost their lives in peacekeeping missions.
Also present was the Acting Prime Minister and Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Minister of Defence Timoci Natuva and Commander of the RFMF Brigadier General Mosese Tikoitoga.
59-year-old Qoriniasi Lawe of Kocoma, Qamea recalled that he was 22years old when he joined the 1FIR that went to serve in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in 1978.
Lawe says he married his loved one on the 31st of May 1978 before he left Fiji for peacekeeping mission on the 1st of June.
He says he was a Territorial Forces soldier and worked as a Rations Clerk while serving in Lebanon for six month and his duty is calculate rations for the 500 Fijian soldiers.
He says life in Lebanon in that year was not that easy.
He also says President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau was the first Commanding Officer of the 1FIR that year.
Lawe who is now on wheelchair adds that it was a special day for him to meet some of his former colleagues which brought back memories in the past 37 years ago.
More than 50 Fijian peacekeepers have lost their lives while serving with the United Nations and Multinational Observers in Sinai.
There are currently 976 Fijian Peacekeepers serving with the United Nations and Multinational Observers in Sinai.
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