Troops set out for tour of Liberia

More than 400 soldiers were preparing today for a tour of duty in west Africa as part of a United Nations peace-keeping force in war torn Liberia.

The 430 troops from the 91st infantry Battalion will serve with a 15,000 strong UN contingent acting as a rapid reaction and peace keeping force.

Defence Minister Michael Smith and Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Lieutenant General Jim Sreenan, will today review the 91st Infantry Battalion at a parade at Collins Barracks, Dublin.

The battalion is an amalgamation of soldiers mainly drawn from 2 Eastern Brigade made up of recruits from Dublin and the east of the country working to restore order to Liberia after 14 years of civil war.

The outbound troops will be based at UN force headquarters near the capital Monrovia and will replace the 90th Battalion in the first week in June.

The Irish contingent will also be involved in the disarmament process throughout Liberia, which has so far yielded more than 9,000 weapons to date.

Defence officials said they expected the UN force to remain in Liberia until early in 2006, with Irish troops being rotated every six months.

At present, Ireland and Sweden are the only two European states with troops serving in the African state, along with 15,000 other soldiers from around the world.

A number of soldiers leaving for the mission in Liberia previously held UN peace keeping roles in the Lebanon, East Timor and the Balkans.