Sir, – With the current intense focus on the safety of Irish soldiers serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), politicians, senior officers in the Defence Forces and commentators have been at pains to emphasise how important the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon is and the value of Ireland’s continued participation. But almost nobody explains what this mission is – beyond generalities about its being “the eyes and ears of the international community” – or how it can be pursued in the middle of a war. You would think this is relevant to a decision to leave hundreds of Irish soldiers in harm’s way.
The sad fact is that Unifil has been almost a complete failure, despite a commitment of 10,000 multinational military personnel (380 Irish) and an annual cost of $500 million (€456 million).
Unifil’s mandate is based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, passed in 2006, which sought to create a demilitarised zone in South Lebanon between the Litani river and the Israel-Lebanon border. It followed the Israel-Hizbullah war of that year. Israel was to withdraw to its side of the border, which it did, and Hizbullah to north of the Litani river, which it did not. Hizbullah was also to disarm; it did the precise opposite, building a huge military capability in South Lebanon.
Unifil’s role was to monitor compliance with Resolution 1701, an impossible responsibility when one side fails to comply with complete impunity. It was also mandated to take enforcement action – such as disarming Hizbullah units or seizing arms – if requested by the Lebanese army. In 18 years, not one such request was ever made, though many doubt that lightly armed Unifil forces would ever have acted on a request of this kind and got into a confrontation with Hizbullah.
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But Unifil stayed, patrolling, monitoring and writing quarterly reports despite its mandate becoming a dead letter. Everything it did was with the permission of Hizbullah, which routinely harasses Unifil and dictate where it can and cannot patrol. However, since October last and particularly since Israel crossed the border into Lebanon, the fundamental weakness of Unifil has come home to roost and its forces are at risk of being trapped in the middle of a lethal conflict which arguably (and certainly in Israel’s view) it has contributed to bringing about.
Against this background, the stance of the Irish Government and nonsensical statements coming out of the Defence Forces about our soldiers’ “determination” to fulfil Unifil’s “mission” are inexplicable. It is a reflection of the sacred-cow status of the UN in Ireland that such statements go unchallenged.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin says that the Government trusts the UN to decide if and when to withdraw and Ireland will not pull out unilaterally. The Tánaiste needs to read up on the history of UN peacekeeping, which is chequered, to put it charitably. From the Balkans to Rwanda, Somalia and elsewhere, UN officials and senior commanders on the ground made catastrophically bad decisions. I would not put the safety of our soldiers in their hands.
It is difficult to see Unifil in its present form surviving the present conflict. The time for Ireland to exit is now. – Yours, etc,
ALAN O’SULLIVAN,
Kilcoole,
Co Wicklow.
