Irish soldiers could be sent on a large-scale peacekeeping mission to the Balkans

AN EXAMINATION IS underway to prepare for the possible deployment of close to 100 Irish soldiers on a peacekeeping mission to the Balkans, The Journal has learned. 

Sources have confirmed that high level meetings have taken place between military and defence officials to decide on how to get Ireland to send troops to Bosnia.

It comes just months before the UNIFIL Lebanon mission ends in the new year as the last Irish detachment, the 69th infantry battalion, deploys there.

Now, sources have revealed, that behind the scenes preparation is advancing to see if Ireland can join a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia with another possible location of Kosovo.

The Balkans was ravaged by a series of wars in the 1990s in which widespread genocide was committed in Srebrenica by Serbian aligned fighters. The city of Sarajevo became an infamous location for the horrors of the war as Bosnian Serb forces committed atrocities during a siege. 

It is understood that the size of the mission would be similar to that deployed in recent years to the Golan Heights and will be what is known as “company strength” which on that occasion was 130 troops. Sources have said the deployment could be as high as 200 soldiers and that the operation would also include the use of a number of armoured personnel carriers.

Their role would be to patrol their area and monitor any potential flashpoints. 

Ireland has previously served in numbers in nearby Kosovo following the Serbian genocide in the late 1990s with the NATO led Kosovo Force (KFOR). There is a continuing Irish presence in Bosnia and Kosovo but they are small in number.

Sources have said it is likely that any mission would be an expansion of the current deployment rather than a new mission.

Operation Althea in Bosnia is an EU mission that has a United Nations mandate. KFOR also has a UN security resolution and this would help a great deal to assuage the concerns of those who are committed to the Triple Lock which requires a UN mandate, cabinet approval and a vote of the Dáil before troops are deployed. 

Sources said that the Triple Lock would block the deployment if the UN mandate was not renewed or vetoed as happened in the case of UNIFIL and Operation Irini, the anti-arms smuggling mission in the Mediterranean. 

There have been extensive concerns within the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces that the loss of a largescale overseas mission, as in Lebanon, will have an adverse impact on recruitment and retention of serving members.

The Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces Lieutenant General Rossa Mulcahy dismissed that concern this morning in Trim, Co Meath when he said it would not cause a “cliff edge” for military personnel. 

He said that 11 other missions, with small numbers of deployments, in various locations across the world would continue. 

A statement from the Department of Defence confirmed it was exploring options to deploy troops abroad.

“The end of Ireland’s participation in UNIFIL does not mark the end of overseas service. The Defence Forces will remain deployed on a number of overseas missions, and we are seeking opportunities to further develop Ireland’s contribution to international peace and security.

“All options are being explored by the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces in relation to future overseas operations,” a Department spokesman said.