PETER LEENTJES /
INTERNATIONAL PEACEKEEPING AUTHORITY

Isle resident trained
U.N. peacekeepers

Peter Leentjes, a retired Canadian army officer and authority on international peacekeeping operations, died of a sudden heart attack on July 28 in Monterey, Calif.

A resident of Honolulu, Leentjes was 58.

Leentjes, who had extensive experience in United Nations peacekeeping duties, was in Monterey to participate in a peacekeeping conference, according to Richard Halloran, a family friend.

Leentjes was born in the Netherlands and emigrated with his parents to Ontario, Canada, in 1952. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1967 and was commissioned in the Royal Canadian Armored Corps.

He served in Germany, Cyprus and France, and in 1992 was named operations officer for the multinational force in Bosnia. In 1995, he was selected to command a new United Nations peacekeeping training unit, which drew officers from the United States, Sweden, Zimbabwe, Italy, Austria and Singapore.

Leentjes retired from the Canadian army in 1999 and moved to Hawaii to work with the Center of Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance.

For the past four years, he led a team of representatives from nongovernmental relief, medical and human rights organizations to Thailand to train U.S., Thai and Singaporean forces in simulated humanitarian operations.