Irish peacekeepers in Chad are not part of hidden agenda set by France
Not only is the link Mr Horgan draws between the EU Lisbon Treaty and the EU peacekeeping mission to eastern Chad strikingly tenuous, but he has also made some inexcusable and inaccurate assertions.
The EU treaty is a separate issue, and while I am fully supportive of the necessity of this text for a new and enlarged union, I would prefer to deal with Mr Horgan’s remarks on Chad separately so as not to cloud two very important ongoing debates.
His claim that this EU peacekeeping mission will be a French-dominated operation with a hidden agenda is not only unhelpful, but does not give any credit to all the other EU member states that have come on board, with Romania most recently offering the much-needed helicopters.
Up to this point, Belgium, Greece, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Romania, Finland, Sweden, and of course Ireland, have all offered to contribute to the force, making it a genuine EU peacekeeping initiative in my view. Mr Horgan’s knowledge of the specific mandate of this EU peacekeeping mission also appears to be limited considering his scaremongering UN Chapter VII mandate remarks.
This mission’s mandate is to work as a deterrent and to use force where necessary to prevent attacks on civilians, camps and villages, humanitarian workers or UN police officers, as well as in self-defence.
This mission will certainly not have the power to “make war”, as Mr Horgan absurdly claims.
Would he prefer that Irish troops were not empowered to defend themselves should they come under attack?
Would he prefer that Irish troops stood back and watched a child being attacked by a rebel outside one of the many refugee camps in this volatile region?
The EU needs to play a crucial role in beginning the groundwork for this operation before UNAMID (UN African Union Mission in Darfur) is deployed. Mr Horgan seems to have also completely overlooked the fact that Al Bashir, the president of Sudan, is still reluctant to accept UNAMID if it is not exclusively made up of African peacekeepers.
But UNAMID may still not receive the required authorisation by Sudan to begin deployment in greater numbers, which underscores the importance of the EU peacekeeping mission getting under way as soon as possible.
African Union (AU) peacekeepers are horrendously ill-equipped and need both the UN and EU to bolster their capacities.
Mr Horgan claims Ireland and the EU should be working with the UN, but they already are doing so. The UN approved the EU’s participation in this mission and has called this UN operation a multi-dimensional force, of which the EU’s involvement is just one component. The objectives of the EU mission are genuinely humanitarian in nature despite Mr Horgan’s reservations.
This mission will contribute to protecting civilians in danger, particularly refugees and displaced persons.
It will facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and the free movement of humanitarian personnel by helping to improve security in the area of operations, and it will contribute to protecting UN personnel, facilities, installations and equipment.
By the end of this year the EU will have spent €30 million in Chad in humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people affected by this ongoing crisis and a further €4m in the northern area of the Central African Republic.
In 2006, the EU spent €6.5 billion in assistance to developing countries. The EU is contributing 51% of all development aid and are doing far more than any other nation or group of nations in helping developing countries.
Indeed, such positive humanitarian action on the world stage could be an incentive to vote yes in the upcoming referendum on the EU treaty, but as I said from the outset, this is a separate debate and it is regrettable that Mr Horgan decided to cloud these two issues.
Colm Burke MEP
20 Washington Street
Cork
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
