KAMPONG CHAM, Cambodia, April 5 (Xinhua) -- As the annual Tomb-Sweeping Day comes, Cambodian and Chinese officials on Thursday jointly organized a ceremony, paying tribute to two Chinese United Nations peacekeeping soldiers who were killed in a blast here 25 years ago.
More than 100 Cambodian and Chinese embassy officials and citizens took part in the ceremony, which was held at a memorial monument in Skun town.
After laying wreaths at the monument, Li Ningya, military attache of the Chinese embassy in Cambodia, said nearly 800 Chinese U.N. soldiers were on a peacekeeping operation in Cambodia in 1992, and a mid-night explosion on May 21, 1993 killed two soldiers, Chen Zhiguo and Yu Shili.
"They lost their lives for the cause of peacekeeping in Cambodia," Li said in a speech during the ceremony. "We will remember their great sacrifices forever."
He said their sacrifices had inspired people to love and protect peace for development and prosperity.
Gen. Phuong Siphan, undersecretary of state of the Cambodian Defense Ministry, expressed his profound condolences to the Chinese government and the bereaved families for the deaths of the two soldiers in the engineering unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
"They sacrificed lives for the cause of peace in Cambodia," the official said in the speech during the ceremony. "We will never forget their courage and sacrifices for the cause of peacekeeping in Cambodia."
He added that the Chinese soldiers' great sacrifices had further enhanced the "fraternal" sentiment between the peoples of the two countries.