§ Mr. Bill O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many peacekeeping tours of duty Gurkha troops have made in the last five years. [151255]
§ Mr. SpellarDuring the last five years, Gurkha units have made 24 separate peacekeeping tours of duty in Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor and Cyprus. Gurkha soldiers have also assisted in establishing or keeping the peace on 14 operations in Sierra Leone, Turkey and Kuwait. A detailed breakdown of these tours is shown in the table.
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Peace keeping tours of duty Unit/Corps Number of Gurkhas1 Area Gurkha Reinforcement Company 2 PARA 4 January-16 July 1999 105 Bosnia Other Tours of Duty: 1 RGR 23 July-13 September 2001 6 Sierra Leone February-April 2001 2 Sierra Leone 2 RGR July-September 2000 6 Sierra Leone September-October 2000 8 Sierra Leone October-November 2000 6 Sierra Leone December 2000–10 April 200 84 completed Sierra Leone 324 still deployed Queen's Gurkha Engineers June-July 2000 10 Sierra Leone Queen's Gurkha Signals May 1996-on going 62 Turkey November 1997-ongoing 242 Kuwait 3 June-2 November 2000 15 Sierra Leone 2 November 2000-on going 29 Sierra Leone Gurkha Reinforcement Company 1 R IRISH 11 September-30 October 2000 32 Sierra Leone 11 September-30 November 2000 6 Sierra Leone Gurkha Reinforcement Company 2 PARA 5–25 May 2000 58 Sierra Leone 1 Figures include all Regimental personnel whether British nationals or Nepalese 2 On-going operation but personnel are replaced every 4 month