Ireland will send troops to Liberia as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force established to monitor the peace agreement in the unstable African state, the Taoiseach confirmed last night. Deaglán de Bréadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, at the United Nations.
He made the announcement in the course of a speech to the UN General Assembly, in which he implicitly criticised aspects of US foreign policy and urged the Israeli government to abandon threats to exile or kill the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat.
The Taoiseach supported the call for UN reform issued by the Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, but refrained from spelling this out in detail. He was equally cautious on Iraq, where he made no mention of sending Irish troops and only a veiled reference to possible financial aid.
"I am pleased to confirm that my Government in the next few days will recommend to our parliament that Ireland's Defence Forces participate with a sizeable contingent in the forthcoming UN peacekeeping operation in Liberia," Mr Ahern said.
Although he did not give details, it is understood that more than 400 Irish troops will take part in the 15,000-strong UN Mission in Liberia (Unmil), which from October next will monitor the ceasefire and peace agreement which recently brought 14 years of conflict to a halt.
It is also understood that the Irish contingent will operate mainly at mission headquarters, in close co-operation with Russian soldiers. Liberia remains volatile, and this is potentially one of the more difficult UN operations.
In an implicit criticism of the recent Iraqi war, Mr Ahern said: "My Government would be deeply concerned at the widespread acceptance of a doctrine of pre-emptive strike. Given the ever more lethal nature of modern weapons, the risk of large-scale death, destruction and escalation are enormous.
"More effective than striking pre-emptively, of course, is to pre-empt the risk of conflict through a wide range of steps in the diplomatic, economic, humanitarian and other areas."
Turning to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said: "President Arafat has a responsibility to lead his people away from violence and back to the negotiating table. It is a responsibility which he must assume. Threats to expel or assassinate him are deeply misguided and dangerous and can only further delay efforts to achieve a settlement."
On Iraq, he stressed the need for international support in political and economic reconstruction. "We look to the members of the Security Council to assume their responsibilities and to reach agreement on a new resolution," he added.
The peace process in Northern Ireland was entering a decisive phase. Warning against complacency, he said: "The moment of opportunity is now, and it is my hope that in the weeks and months ahead all of the parties who subscribed to the Good Friday agreement will collectively rise to that challenge."
On UN reform, he acknowledged the failings of the world body but insisted: "If we did not already have such an organisation, we would surely have to invent it. The tragedy for mankind is that we do not make the most effective use of it."
He appealed to member-states to cease putting narrow national concerns before the interests of the wider international community.
He added: "We are fortunate, at this moment, to have as Secretary-General a man of the stature of Kofi Annan; a man who is held in universal regard and who is seen to stand for the interests of the entire international community." Mr Annan had "not shrunk from grasping the nettle of reform", and member-states must rise to this challenge.
Under its Charter, the UN was precluded from intervening in matters that were within the domestic jurisdiction of a sovereign state, although "some situations are clearer than others".
"I cannot accept that the international community should stand by and accept the large-scale, flagrant and persistent violation of individual human rights," he said.