NationalPlatform.Org

EU ASKS GOVERNMENT FOR IRISH TROOPS FOR THE CONGO

Xavier Solana, former NATO secretary-general and aspiring EU Foreign
Minister, is asking the Government to Irish troops to the Congo as part of
an EU force to supervise elections there. Belgium, the Congo's former
colonial ruler, which raped the entire region during the reign of its King
Leopold 2,is backing  Solana's request. So is France.

Belgium and France were complicit in the massacre of of 700,000 Hutus in
next-door Rwanda during two months in 1994 - the biggest mass slaughter in
history in such a short period of time. Franco-Belgian support for the Hutu
forces which then fled to the Congo was crucial in destablising the entire
region over the past decade. Local proxies for Belgium and France have been
fighting a civil war in the Congo all that time. Now France and Belgium
want Ireland and smaller EU countries like Sweden to act as their frontmen
in the area, flying EU or UN flags rather than the Belgian and French
tricolours. The former Central African colonial powers are willing to
provide troops for this Congo mission,  but are unwilling to be nominally
in charge. They want some country like Ireland or Sweden to be that, thus
providing an EU fig-leaf for this latest proposed EU adventure.

African troops, not Irish ones, are the most appropriate for the Congo -
if outsiders are really needed there at all. If African governments do not
have enough money to pay for such troops, then let the UN give them the
money and let Ireland contribute financially through the UN. Irish troops
have no business today in that part of the world,for they will effectively
be there to  serve Franco-Belgian interests under ther guise of an EU flag.
When Irish troops were last in the Congo,in 1961, the situation was quite
different,for there were no independent African countries able to
contribute. That is quite different now. What does South Africa think of
this EU proposal?

Defence Minister Willie O'Dea will be quivering to take part. O'Dea can see
himself being blooded as an international warrior on a new Congo mission.
If Irish soldiers are killed in this latest proposed Congo lunacy, their
blood will be on the heads of O'Dea, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern and
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for failing to tell Xavier Solana to get lost.

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*** EU PROPOSES COMMON MILITARY BUDGET

The head of the European Defence Agency (EDA), Nick Witney, has requested
50 million euros to create what French daily Le Figaro on 10 Feb. called
"the first common European defence budget."  At a conference on 9 February
European Defence Ministers discussed giving the EDA a budget to allow
common European defence projects to go ahead, such as the building of a
military helicopter.  While the French encouraged the initiative, the UK
was said to be "hostile", and Germany "cautious".  The proposal will be
discussed again at a meeting of EU Defence Ministers on 6 and 7 March in
Innsbruck, Austria, which our own Willie O'Dea is expected to attend. How
much of our money will O'Dea offer to contribute?

Filed under: EU Army, EU Foreign Policy | Tagged: congo |