| From: | "Irina Malenko" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> |
| Reply-to: | [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
| Date: | Wed, 13 Mar 2002 11:56:26 +0000 |
| Subject: | Irish Army is taking part in NATO excercises (forwarded information) |
COMMUNIST PARTY OF IRELAND 13th March 02. IRISH ARMY IS TAKING PART IN NATO EXERCISES. MILITARY EXERCISES THAT DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE PRESS OFFICE KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT AND DENIES THAT THEY ARE TAKING PLACE. The Communist Party of Ireland has become aware that the Irish Army has sent Irish soldiers (Three officer and nearly fifty) soldiers) to take part in NATO - Partnership For Peace joint military manoeuvres with 24 other countries. They are taking part in a two-week "STRONG RESOLVE 02" NATO exercise. This is the culmination of four years of training and will test NATO's ability to respond to two types of crisis in two different areas simultaneously. One, is the defence of a NATO country attacked with conventional weapons is one and will take place in Norway and the other crisis response operation in which NATO-led forces are deployed to mediate between two warring countries beyond NATO's area of responsibility. This will take place in Poland. When we joined the PfP the Government stated that the public and the Dail would be kept informed as to the extent of our participation in PfP. The Irish public was told that we would have nothing to do with NATO. The opposite is the case as we can see from these joint manoeuvres. It is clear that this is just another step away from our traditional military neutrality. 1. The Minister For Defence must give details as to the extent of Irish military personnel involvement in these operations and at what level. 2. Why was the Dail not informed that Irish military personnel would be taking part in these exercises? 3. Can our Government be trusted in what it says in relation to our commitments to PfP? 4. Why is there so much secrecy about these manoeuvres? The Communist Party calls for a full statement from the Government and clarification as to why the Dail has not been informed. Eugene Mc Cartan General Secretary Ph: 6711943.
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