Irish troops, preparing to travel to East Timor for Ireland’s fifth peacekeeping mission to the region, will today be inspected by the Minister for Defence.
A platoon of thirty-three soldiers, mostly from Donegal, will from next week join the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) for a four-month tour of duty.
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The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern with Irish peacekeeping troops in East Timor last year
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Minister for Defence, Mr Michael Smith, will inspect the troops this afternoon in Donegal. They will depart for the region in two groups on January 31st and February 6th.
East Timor has been steeped in conflict since 1999 after a UN-monitored poll showed that 78.5 per cent of East Timorese people rejected Indonesia’s right to rule.
The Indonesian security forces and pro-integration militia, however, ignored the result and began a campaign of violence which has left at least 500,000 people displaced.
The Irish troops, who are the first western brigade platoon to enter the region and have an average age of 23 years, will be based in the Kova-Lima district of East Timor, near the border with West Timor.
Army press officer Comdt Kieran McDaid, told ireland.comtoday he did not envisage any particular danger for the troops who will be posted some way from the border area.
The Irish troops will form part of the New-Zealand battalion, who along with Australian troops will monitor the border with the west.
As a result the Irish brigade "will not be involved in immediate cross border activity", said Comdt McDaid.