Unidad Escuela de Misiones de Paz

“ECUADOR” Compromiso-Excelencia-Integridad

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.

SSC. Fabián Arias