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The Irish Times
July 24, 2002
Irish peacekeeping force in Kosovo to double in size
and have new infantry role
By Jim Cusack, Security Editor
The Irish peacekeeping presence in Kosovo is to be
doubled to around 250 in the next eight months, and
its mission changed from a transport unit to a
light-armed infantry role.
The new Kosovo role will be the Defence Forces'
largest peacekeeping commitment, replacing the
battalion-sized (around 550-strong) contingent which
served for 23 years in Lebanon.
The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, is visiting the
Irish transport unit's headquarters today after
spending a day with the 59-member Irish military
police contingent serving in Sarajevo.
He is spending three days in the Balkans meeting Irish
personnel and having discussions with senior UN and
NATO officials.
The MPs' role in Sarajevo is to continue unchanged for
the near future.
This follows the resolution of a dispute between the
US and the UN over the International Criminal Court.
The transport unit in Koslov, based in Laputan,
outside the capital Pristina, has served for over
three years and the last unit will complete its
six-month tour in early autumn.
The 112 transport and logistics specialists will be
replaced on the next tour of duty by a similar number
of infantry troops.
This group will establish the new role and will be
expanded to a unit of around 250 in April. It will
serve with Scandinavian battalions under British
command in the Multinational Brigade Centre (MNBC).
This is deployed in the central and north-eastern
region of Kosovo. Most of the 700,000 living in the
area are Albanians and in the early days of the
mission the force had to deal with retaliatory attacks
on the minority Serbs remaining in the area.
In the north-east of the mission area there is a
border with Serbia and the brigade has responsibility
for three boundary-crossing points. There were
frequent clashes at these crossings in the early days
of the mission but these have become fewer in the past
two years.
The mission of MNBC is to "establish and maintain a
secure environment and to assist the UN-mandated
mission in order to promote peace and stability in
Kosovo".
This includes the monitoring and enforcement of the
Military Technical Agreement.A Finnish battalion
(Finbatt) has served in Kosovo since August 1999, and
like the Irish unit it is among the non-NATO
peacekeeping troops participating in the 55,000-strong
operation.
The Irish infantry unit, using new armoured personnel
carriers (APCs), will assist in the roles of "security
of the area", monitoring "transformation and
compliance" towards the establishment of democratic
institutions and "civil military operations".
The Irish battalion served alongside Finnish and
Norwegian troops for most of the duration of the
UNIFIL mission in Lebanon and this experience
contributed to the decision to locate the Irish
infantry unit under their direction.
It has been the Defence Forces' intention to establish
a battalion-sized peace mission abroad since leaving
Lebanon two years ago.
The other foreign missions abroad are the 200-strong
logistics and security element in Eritrea and an
infantry unit of around 50 serving in East Timor.
There are also observers on other UN missions.
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