On Saturday, just after Ireland tipped the EU into crisis by rejecting the Lisbon Treaty, Irish forces serving with the EU in Chad found themselves caught in a fire-fight between rebels and government forces. Luckily they didn’t take casualties. It’s not hard to imagine the headlines if they had: “Irish Soldiers Die For EU As Civilians Reject It” packs a punch (regular readers will know that I’ve spent a lot of time imagining such a scenario). Given that one issue in the Lisbon referendum campaign was Ireland’s traditional neutralism, which some voters fear under threat from the EU, the losses would have been more resonant still.
But, in contrast to the very deliberate murder of a UN peacekeeper in Darfur last month, this shoot-out was all a silly mistake. Today’s Irish Times quotes rebel spokesmen getting emotional about how fond they are of the EU force (Eufor):
The rebels, who claim to be advancing on the Chadian capital N’Djamena for their second offensive against President Idriss Deby in six months, said the EU force, known as Eufor, had demonstrated its neutrality since deploying to eastern Chad. “We congratulate Eufor soldiers for their courageous attitude and neutrality. Eufor has showed its strict neutrality in this conflict and therefore we have no problem with them,” rebel spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah said. “If Eufor continues to be neutral, they will have no problem from us.”
“Eufor was definitely not the intended target of the shots. These were perhaps loose shots. We are very happy with the stance [Eufor] took yesterday, because it took a more defensive stance not an offensive one. The shooting which took place does not in any away compromise the relations between us, which are relations of mutual respect.”
Whereupon Mr. Koulamallah knocked back a pint of Beamish, gave a rousing rendition of the opening verses of “Danny Boy” and inquired whether it might be possible for the Corrs to perform at the projected victory march through N’Djamena later this month… well, not quite, but you get my drift.
There are two ways of interpreting all this: (i) Eufor has achieved some credibility as a humanitarian mission, rather than a front for French interests in Chad; or (ii) the rebels are now confident that the EU troops are impotent. While I’m relieved that no Irish troops died, this feels eerily like those occasions in the 1990s when Bosnian Serb commanders pledged their undying affection for UNPROFOR… as Daniel and I pointed out when the Chad mission began, it’s not a good precedent.
