Defence Forces Review 2008

Defence Forces Review 2008
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UNTSO has been commanded on three occasions by Irish Army Officers – Col Dick Bunworth, Maj Gen Karl
Dodd, and Lt Gen Bill Callaghan. Ireland currently has 14 Officers deployed with this same mission working
in Israel, Lebanon and Syria and thus maintains a direct link with the very first UN Peacekeeping Mission ever
mounted - but UNTSO was then and remains today an Observer Mission
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Handbook on UN Multi-dimensional Peacekeeping Operations, Best Practices Unit, ,DPKO, UNNY, December
2003, Introduction, p.1.
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Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was Secretary-General of the United Nations from 10 April 1953 until 18
September 1961 when he met his death in a plane accident while on a peace mission in the Congo. During his terms
as Secretary-General, Mr. Hammarskjöld carried out many responsibilities for the United Nations in the course of
its efforts to prevent war and serve the other aims of the Charter which included: continuing diplomatic activity in
support of the Armistice Agreements between Israel and the Arab States and to promote progress toward better and
more peaceful conditions in the area; organization in 1956 of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) and its
administration since then; clearance of the Suez Canal in 1957 and assistance in the peaceful solution of the Suez
Canal dispute; organization and administration of the United Nations Observation Group in Lebanon (UNOGIL)
and establishment of an office of the special representative of the Secretary-General in Jordan in 1958.
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Sir Brian Edward Urquhart KCMG MBE is a former Undersecretary-General of the United Nations. He served
in the British Army during World War II, as an intelligence officer. Urquhart is well-known for his attempts to
persuade the planners of Operation Market Garden to modify or abort their plans, in light of crucial information
obtained from aerial reconnaissance and the Dutch resistance. Urquhart was a member of the staff involved in the
setting-up of the United Nations in 1945, and has advised every Secretary-General of the United Nations since
its inception. His main fields of interest and operation at the UN have been conflict resolution and peacekeeping.
Urquhart organized the first peacekeeping force (in Egypt after the Suez crisis). To differentiate the peacekeepers
from other soldiers, the UN wanted to have the soldiers wear blue berets. When that turned out to take six weeks
to make, Urquhart proposed the characteristic blue helmets, which could be made in a day by painting over regular
ones. As Undersecretary-General, Urquhart’s main functions were the direction of peace-keeping forces in the
Middle East and Cyprus, and negotiations in these two areas; amongst others, his contributions also included work
on the negotiations relating to a Namibia peace settlement, negotiations in Kashmir, Lebanon and work on peaceful
uses for nuclear energy. His autobiography is called A Life in Peace and War.
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Dáil Debates, 28 June 1963. Also available on the website of the JFK Museum, at http://www.jfklibrary.org/
j062863.htm (24 February 2006).
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UNPROFOR Maximum Strength: 39,922 including 38,614 military personnel, 637 United Nations military
observers and 671 civilian police, plus civilians and local staff. Authorized force was 44,870, plus 2,500 international
staff and 3,000 local staff. Fatalities: 167 (3 military observers, 159 other military, 1 civil police 2 int’l civilian staff
and 2 local staff. Cost: 4.617 billion US$. Source http://www.pkops.net/unops.htm
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Sreenan, James, Doing the World’s most dangerous Work – From Cyprus to Liberia, This paper was originally
presented to the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, on 18 November 2005, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Ireland’s
accession to the UN and cites the statistic that between 1982 and 2005 two hundred and ten UN civilian employees
were killed in unprovoked acts of aggression.
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Report of the Panel on UN Peace Operations A/55/305 - S/2000/809 (New York, 2000). - http://www.un.org/peace/
reports/peace_operations/).(21 February 2006).
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A total of 101,495 combatants (22,370 women, 8,523 boys and 2,440 girls) disarmed; 28,314 assorted weapons,
6,486,136 small ammunitions and 33,604 heavy ammunitions were collected and destroyed. Some 65,000
demobilized combatants have so far benefited from reintegration and rehabilitation opportunities through projects
funded by the UNDP Trust Fund. Approximately 37,000 ex-combatants are still waiting to be placed in reintegration
programmes. UNMIL continues to collect and destroy remaining weapons and ammunition, willingly surrendered
or discovered through cordon and search operations. From such efforts so far, 462 weapons, 59,972 small arms
and ammunition and 671 heavier munitions have been collected. Additionally, the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) has begun the implementation of a Community Arms Collection for Development Programme,
which provides community projects in exchange for weapons in Grand Gedeh, Lofa and Nimba counties. Source:
http://unmil.org/content.aspccat=history
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BBC News, Tuesday, 20 June 2006: Liberian ex-President Charles Taylor has arrived in the Netherlands where he
is to be tried on war crimes charges. For security reasons, the UN-backed tribunal in Sierra Leone moved his trial
to The Hague from Freetown where he has been in jail since his capture. Mr Taylor faces 11 charges after allegedly
backing rebels in the decade-long Sierra Leone civil war. Last week, the United Kingdom offered to host any jail
term he may serve, paving the way for his transfer. The government of the Netherlands agreed Mr Taylor’s trial
could take place there, as long as he is imprisoned in another country if he was convicted.
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