500 Irish Troops Prepare to enter Liberia

national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Tuesday December 09, 2003 02:42 by Chris Donoghue chrisdonoghue at eircom dot net

As Irish troops prepare to enter Liberia some news companies in Ireland have portrayed the country as still being at war. This is untrue and positive steps are being taken everyday to maintain permanant PEACE in the West African State.

Approximtely 500 Irish troops are on the brink of joining some 15,000 U.N. troops in peacekeeping operations in the West African state of Liberia. Two weeks ago Sergeant Derek Mooney was tragically killed in a road accident in Liberia and this has prompted some newspapers to question Irish participation in the UN mission in Liberia (UNMIL). The publications in question have dug up old photographs of Liberian youths holding weapons to accompany heavily opinionated articles calling for our troops to stay at home. On the day these articles were published the UN was in fact preparing to take arms from fighters In Liberia. Last Sunday (Dec 7th) some 1,400 fighters cued for hours to hand weapons over to the UN. These weapons will now be destroyed and the programme of handing over weapons will continue. I would argue that Irish troops will be stepping into a country that is starting to see the end of a bloody fourteen-year civil war and not the country full of bandits that Independent Newspapers has portrayed.
Liberia’s new chairman, Gyude Bryant, has vowed to lead Africa’s oldest democracy into peaceful democratic elections in 2005. To date UNMIL has made nothing but positive progress in maintaining peace and tackling an enormous humanitarian problem in Liberia and 1,400 people handing their weapons over in one day points towards a desire for peace. Therefore Irish troops should be willing to help in this mission, the Irish people should be proud of our troops and the Irish media should publish up to date and factually correct articles when influencing the public’s opinion on a matter as serious as this one.