MINISTER FOR Defence Willie O’Dea has moved to avert a rift between Irish troops in Chad and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), saying he has accepted an apology over controversial remarks made by the agency about the Defence Forces mission.
In a joint statement issued last night by Mr O’Dea and the Defence Forces Chief of Staff Lieut Gen Dermot Earley, both individuals said “the matter is now closed”.
This followed an apology from the UNHCR yesterday to the Irish members of the European peace enforcement mission (EUfor) over comments by one of its officials in an interview this week with The Irish Times.
The UNHCR official had criticised the actions of the Irish troops during a rebel attack in Goz Beida in eastern Chad on Saturday, suggesting the soldiers waited until after the incident before moving in to evacuate the staff.
In a statement last night, the UNHCR said: “We regret comments made by a UNHCR staff member in eastern Chad following a very tense and dangerous episode over the weekend.
“UNHCR appreciates the role EUfor and the Irish forces are playing to protect refugees, displaced people and aid workers in this difficult and dangerous environment.”
In their joint statement issued last night, Mr O’Dea and Lieut Gen Earley said the UNHCR had formally apologised yesterday morning. The UN secretary general’s special representative in Chad, Victor Angelov, had yesterday evening reiterated the apology to the Irish battalion commander in Goz Beida, Lieut Col Patrick McDaniel. “[Mr Angelov] praised the efforts of the Irish and Dutch contingent in evacuating humanitarian personnel,” the statement read.
“The Minister for Defence has accepted the apology and the matter is now closed.”
The Irish mission, numbering about 400 troops, and the Dutch, numbering 30 troops, will continue to support humanitarian agencies in their area of responsibility in eastern Chad.
The controversial remarks were made by the UNHCR’s official spokeswoman in Chad, Annette Rehrl, who said on Tuesday that when the UNHCR’s compound in Goz Beida was looted by rebels, and staff threatened at gunpoint, the EUfor troops did not come to their aid until “after the whole thing happened”.
The Irish are mandated to protect refugees, internally displaced persons and humanitarian staff. The peace enforcement, rather than peacekeeping, nature of the mission empowers them to intervene if the people they are mandated to protect are being attacked.
Mr O’Dea last night returned from a three-day visit to Chad with Lieut Gen Earley.
