DR CONGO: A senior official with the Department of Defence is to travel to Paris today to discuss possible Irish involvement in a peacekeeping mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The meeting, which will bring together representatives of defences forces throughout Europe, was convened by the French government, which is spearheading efforts to quell a recent upsurge in violence in the African state.
A spokesman for the Department of Defence said the meeting would be mainly a listening exercise for Ireland. "The French, who are leading the mission, will indicate what they are short of, and then it will be up to countries to see whether or not they will get involved."
He denied a media report yesterday that Ireland had decided to offer troops from the Army Ranger Wing to join an EU-led mission to the DRC. "We never said we were going to offer something at the meeting. We are still considering our position."
Under an agreement with the United Nations, Ireland is committed to providing up to 850 peacekeeping troops on request. Only 400 such troops are currently in service overseas - mainly in Eritrea, Kosovo and Bosnia - leaving capacity for the involvement of more than 400 troops in a mission to the DRC.
About 100 special forces troops are based with the Ranger Wing, which previously served in East Timor.
Irish troops served in the then Belgian Congo between 1960 and 1964 in what was the Army's first overseas peacekeeping operation since Ireland had joined the UN five years earlier.
Some 27 Irish soldiers died in the mission, including nine in an ambush at Niemba in November 1960, the worst single incident in the Defence Forces' history.
