Malaysia's United Nations Police Officer Laid To Rest

SERIAN (Sarawak, Malaysia), Feb 19 (Bernama) -- The remains of Insp Benet Pawun, a member of Malaysia's United Nations Police (UNPOL) for a peace-keeping mission in Timor Leste, was laid to rest at a Christian cemetery at Kampung Mayang Kawan of Serian district (east Malaysia), here Sunday. A crowd of about 1,000 including 500 police officers and personnel congregated for the funeral service, which was held at the Bidayuh village St Anthony Church and headed by Rev Fr Jerome Juleng. Benet, 52, died in Dili, Timor Leste on Feb 7. His cause of death had yet to be officially announced but newsreports had said that it was due to dengue. DSP Terrence Wilkie Sikuel, the late Benet's superior prior to his United Nation's assignment had described the latter as a hardworking yet jovial officer. In his eulogy at the service, Terrence recalled how Benet had always displayed his high spiritedness, working his way up from being an ordinary police constable to a hardworking inspector in the criminal investigation division. "He would always be the earliest to arrive at the office when he was under my charge, and everytime when he finished up his day, he would always tuck in his shirt before leaving," he said amidst tears. Terrence said Benet had always been an ambitious person and had on several ocassions confided his intentions to join international policing assignments. He got the break when he was selected to go to Dili, Timor Leste (Oct 13 last year) under a United Nations peacekeeping mission, Terrence said. Terrence said Benet contacted him by phone barely a week before the latter's demise informing him that he would be on leave from Feb 14 this year and would be back to Kuching by then. "It seems that this is not going to happen when I got the news (of his demise," he added. Meanwhile, UNPOL presented a donation of RM112,000 to the late Benet's wife, Clare Baor at the sevice. The late Benet and Clare have six children. -- BERNAMA