SEVERAL HUNDRED Irish soldiers serving in Chad may not be awarded a medal from the United Nations for their tour of duty, it has emerged.
Efforts are currently being made to secure the medals for almost 400 soldiers who will fall just short of the 90 days needed for a UN medal despite spending four months in the country.
The UN’s force commander in Chad General Elhadji Mouhamadou Kandji is believed to be reluctant to award the medals. However, military sources said it now appears the UN may re-examine the cases of Irish troops who will fall just short of 90 days service. A decision is not expected before the current group in Chad return home in six weeks.
“It involves the UN making an allowance for our troops and it’s far from certain that that will happen,” said one informed source.
Irish soldiers serving in Chad said they were hopeful the UN would award them their medals.
“It would be the first time any of us can remember the Irish not getting their UN medals,” said one source.
The troops from the 99th Infantry Battalion were deployed to Chad in late January and will return home in early June. When they were first deployed they were serving as part of a European peace enforcement mission, EUfor. The European Union-run force was put in place at the beginning of last year as a stop-gap force before the UN took over multinational peace enforcement in Chad.
On March 15th the UN assumed the mission and EUfor has now ended. The Irish troops, and most of their international EUfor colleagues, remained on as part of the UN force, MINURCAT.
When the UN took over all of the Irish troops in Chad had at least 30 days service completed with EUfor; the minimum number needed to entitle them to a EUfor medal. By the time they are due to return home in June they will have around 70 days service under the new UN mission.
However, the UN requires 90 days service before awarding a medal to troops on its overseas missions.
The Irish currently in Chad will be granted two weeks leave when they return home and during that period they will still technically be serving on the UN mission. This means they will have over 80 UN Chad service days.
Irish military sources told The Irish Timesthat they initially believed the UN would award them medals because they were
only falling short of the 90-day term by a small number of days. “Because the mission is only four months rather than the usual six months with the UN and because it’s very demanding and we get no leave we felt they would make allowances,” said one source.
“But over the past while news filtered through in briefings that we get that we wouldn’t be getting the medals.”
The Defence Forces told The Irish Timesthat 90 days of service were needed before a UN medal could be awarded. A spokesman said the decision on whether to award the medals was one for the UN.
“It’s completely out of our hands,” the spokesman in Dublin said.
Most of the 400 plus Irish troops are based in Goz Beida in eastern Chad. They provide security for locals and people in camps for internally displaced persons and refugees, who have fled fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region and internal unrest.
