PEACEKEEPERS AMBUSHED BY A POLITICAL WAR

No soldier makes the promise to defend another country, and it is fair to live this
group of Irish soldiers belonging to the United Nations, who without any
experience in combat but with good references for their courage and bravery,
were selected by the Court of United Nations and sent to a hostile terrain where
a battle was eminent by the crisis aroused between the two provinces of the
Congo, Katanga and South Kassai for existing mineral resources. But everything
would take an unexpected turn when President Patrice Lumumba was killed for
wanting to keep resources within the city.

There was a long time of conflict but once given the ceasefire between the two
provinces, a UN intervention gave a slight hope that everything would be fine,
nothing is further from reality. Once displaced within the Congo, the UN troops
were designated to take care of large mineral deposits, by the representative of
the UN's General Secretariat, while others were preparing to carry out a plan
Morthor that would consist in recovering government installations taken by the
rebels citizen of Katanga.

Although the plan was a success, the side effects began to appear and suddenly,
the government forces, led by General Tshombe, set out to attack the small group
of Irish peacekeepers who were unprotected and insufficient armament and
ammunition, to face a legally constituted force. The personnel of Katanga soldiers
outnumbered in a ratio of 1 to 20 but they did not have the training of the Irish
peacekeepers who in their first defense had already killed more than 30 soldiers.

With very few resources and making use of all the knowledge on war techniques
and tactics, the Irish peacekeepers, faced the soldiers of Katanga. Despite having
effectively used their ammunition, the number of Katanga soldiers was increasing
in number as they were increasingly dominated by the Irish peacekeepers. Vano
was requesting help from the General in charge in the Congo, because when
trying to send peacekeeper personnel to reinforce the area, they were met with a
bullet and could not enter the combat zone, so they had to retire, leaving the Irish
to the fate of God.
The Irish peacekeepers fought with everything, managing to safeguard the life of
the whole company and defending their position until they ran out of ammunition.
At that time, Lieutenant Quinlan, who was in charge, knew that they had no other
choice than to surrender, since the Secretary General of the United Nations Dag
Hammarskjold, who was traveling to the Congo with the intention of engaging in
talks with General Tshombe had been murdered who was the same person that
had assassinated President Lumumba.

Then, as expected, with no more ammunition to defend, Lieutenant Quinlan's

company was arrested and put in prison until the negotiations between the
government authorities gave way to the peace treaties. It took a month for UN
personnel to be released and sent back to Ireland where, instead of having been
received as heroes for their feat in the town of Jadotville, they were treated like
soldiers who had surrendered without fighting, But all this was because they did
not want to cause much fuss over the deaths caused during the execution of the
plan where Conor Cruise, representative of the United Nations, had acted badly
killing more than 30 civilians.

The bewilderment of the Irish soldiers could have taken them even to a court
martial, but they decided to make a formal claim with which after several years of
struggle, they managed to be recognized and decorated for their feat in Jadotville,
fighting with personnel without experience in combat, were those that were
victorious even with the limited number of personnel and limited ammunition and
weapons. As a result of this bloody conflict, more than 300 lives were lost by
Katanga soldiers and fortunately there was no need to regret the life of a
peacekeeper.

Although everything is regulated in the mandates, there are currently many laws
that encourage the non-use of weapons under any circumstances, but there will
be occasions when a soldier of peace has to use them for the protection of
civilians or of his life itself, and this film is a great example of struggle and courage
of which every soldier is full and always give his best not to meet the whims of a
person or certain groups but to ensure a community within the parameters set
and even to offer his life.

Sgos. De E. Fabián Arias