WITH eight peacekeepers killed, China was not spared from the tragedy of the recent earthquake in Haiti. Its forces have served with honor in the small country in the past, and Ni Yinbin talks with Zhu Hua about her 15-month tour in a team of 18 elite Shanghai police.

Zhu Hua went into a 15-month posting with a group of 18 Shanghai police assigned to the United Nations peacekeeping work in Haiti guaranteed of making her own slice of history.

It was the summer of 2008 when the team wearing their Chinese uniforms donned the distinguishing blue helmets of UN peacekeepers in the recently earthquake ravaged Caribbean republic.

Among them, Zhu was to stand out as the first woman media officer of any UN peacekeeping force in Haiti.

But her achievements working for MINUSTAH, the French acronym for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, went beyond a gender advance.

During the tour, Zhu coordinated the first open day of the UN peacekeeping police camp, established a peacekeepers' honor room, set up a sports club, and recorded visits by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former US President Bill Clinton for the official UN Website and various media.

And she saw some action.

The team returned to Shanghai last October and Zhu this month spoke about her experiences against the backdrop of the earthquake tragedy estimated to have claimed up to 200,000 lives, including eight Chinese peacekeepers.

"I wish I could have been there with them," Zhu said about the current situation in Haiti and the search for victims after the earthquake.

Zhu flew to Beijing on January 21 as a representative of Shanghai peacekeeping officers to attend the eight Chinese officers' funeral.

With tanned skin and hair in a ponytail, Zhu looks fit in her uniform and her outgoing character is telegraphed by the big smile on her face. Zhu, 29, joined Shanghai Public Security Bureau in 2000 and before going to Haiti had won three third-class merits and one commendation.

"Becoming a police officer was a dream come true for me and participating in the peacekeeping mission was another ambition realized," Zhu said, recalling her application for the mission.

She had kept an eye on peacekeeping police recruitment since China sent its first troops to Haiti in 2004.

"I had participated in the security of a lot of international conferences and events in Shanghai such as APEC 2001 and the Special Olympics in 2007," Zhu said. "My experience was enriched and my language skills were improved as a result."

Although Haiti has beautiful beaches and landscapes, the country has been suffering serious anarchy and turbulence since a rebellion in February 2004, and the UN Stabilization Mission has been in the country since.

Despite having been aware of the situation in Haiti, the team was shocked when they landed in July 2008. "The airport was so desolate that the runway was built in rough weeds," Zhu said. "I'd never seen such an airport."

Speaking before the earthquake hit, Zhu said life was already tough in the island country where resources were limited, especially the choice of food, and many people suffered from serious poverty.

"You go into a shop, and there are only a few goods to buy," she said. "Starving kids beg for food in the streets.

"Even if you have enough money, you can't get what you want. No kidding, even a packet of instant noodles was a luxury meal for us," Zhu added.

As a media officer and correspondent, Zhu's job was to take pictures and write reports about team members' work during the mission, answer questions at media conferences, produce the police magazine "MINUSTAH Police Express," and update the police Website.

"We were short of people. Sometimes I covered almost every job on the magazine from writing and photography to typesetting and publishing," Zhu said.

She was easy to identify in the UN mission zone of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Dressed in heavy protective armor, she carried a camera over her shoulder and bustled around various diplomatic events and police actions.

She said the most exciting experience was to witness the clean-up of the biggest crime gang in Haiti which had been planning a large-scale shoot-out in the city.

On the early morning of July 2, 2009, Zhu gathered with about 100 peacekeepers at the Sri Lankan camp, then traveled in force in armored vehicles and helicopters.

"When we arrived, the streets of the Martissant District, usually busy, were deadly silent," Zhu said. "The sporadic, distant gunfire unnerved everyone."

Zhu was embedded with one of the teams doing a blanket search of the area. She had to move fast to get her reporting job done in the dangerous environment. To save time, she drafted the outline of the story in the vehicle, and intermittently jumped out to take quick pictures.

In order to get a good variety of shots, Zhu leaned her upper body out of the car window as a colleague covered her from fire and another inside the vehicle held her legs as the vehicle kept moving. She not only had to pay attention to the developing situation and be ready to draw her gun, but also move quickly so as not to hold back the team.

"It was so challenging," said Zhu, who had no photographic experience before going to Haiti. "The pictures had to capture the danger and toughness of the action and also to show the peacekeeping cops from different countries of the UN maintaining 'international balance'."

She followed her teammates, rushing around and climbing over walls carrying her camera and lenses. "A lens cover was damaged during the rush, my arm was bruised in a fall, and I had no time to take care of them or even think," Zhu said, describing the challenges. This operation turned out to be a success as a dozen or so gangsters, including the leader, were nabbed, Zhu said.

Her proudest moment was the successful MINUSTAH camp "open day" last year because it was her idea.

Every year, the General Assembly of the UN invites member states, organizations in the UN system and individuals to commemorate the annual International Day of UN Peacekeepers on May 29.?Also, all staff are granted a half-day holiday to celebrate. Zhu developed an idea to arrange an "Open Day" in the mission area to celebrate the occasion.

"I found during the mission that local Haitians were not familiar with us, our job and how we do it. I thought an open day with free entry and activities would be helpful to improve our relationship with the locals," Zhu said.

"It could also be a good chance for peacekeeping police from all over the world to communicate and share their culture."

The plan of activities and events she drafted overnight was approved by the Police Commissioner the next day.?But getting it all together took much longer.

In such a cross-cultural and multi-lingual body like the UN, the effort to produce such an event was 10 times more than would be needed for something similar in China, she said, even with the support of the top leader.

"The first problem was time because we got less than a week to prepare for the open day," Zhu explained.

"Secondly, we didn't have logistical support from the UN as it is a group of volunteers. And thirdly, not every officer was keen on open day activities."

Zhu lobbied the civil and riot police and also negotiated with MINUSTAH to borrow facilities and venues. She also organized interested units and individuals to prepare displays and to set up for the event to be recorded.

In the end, Zhu won over the resistance and the momentum snowballed to such a level that all involved in the mission area participated.?

With colored flags fluttering in the camps, thousands of Haitians joined mission area officials, staff and the military police in participating in the open day on May 28, 2009.?Visitors were treated to information displays, weapons practice, anti-riot drills and folk performances and savored food from around the world.

"Every one was amazed and the relationship between the Haitian people and the peacekeeping police largely improved," Zhu said proudly. "The Haitians and their government got a better understanding of our work and we had a meaningful and unique way of celebrating our holiday."

Despite the intensity of the work, Zhu was thousands of kilometers away from home in Shanghai, and found that a phone call to her family was the best antidote for loneliness.

"I missed home so much when I was in Haiti and to control that feeling was hard," she said. "I still remember Lunar New Year's eve in Haiti. It was sad to celebrate without family. Sometimes I wanted to call my mum, but the time difference prevented me."

Because of her excellent work, Zhu received the highest grade in the annual MINUSTAH appraisal.

She has since joined with most of her fellow Shanghai "blue helmets" on a new assignment to secure the World Expo facilities and this time she will be in her hometown with her family.