Ireland: The Government has told the United Nations that it will send Irish soldiers as part of an EU military effort to offer logistical support to regions in Asia devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ahern, said in Brussels yesterday that a decision could be made within days to deploy soldiers to help with reconstruction efforts, such as road-building.
"We have made it clear we will work within a UN mandate," he said.
EU foreign ministers yesterday asked the EU's foreign policy chief, Mr Javier Solana, "to examine the possibility of better coordination of military resources . . . to place them at the disposal of the United Nations".
EU and UN representatives are expected to meet over the weekend to establish how and where best to deploy European military forces in the region.
Mr Ahern said it was vital that any such effort should be co-ordinated through the UN.
"We can't do this off the top of our heads. We have to do this in conjunction with the people and the organisations on the ground," he said.
Mr Ahern leaves today for a three-day tour of the disaster-hit region, accompanied by the leaders of the aid agencies Goal, Concern and Trócaire. Mr Ahern said he wanted to express the Government's solidarity with non-governmental organisations working to help the victims, adding that he had promised the UN that Ireland was ready to offer more help if needed.
"I made it quite clear that if extra finance from us is required, we'll come up to the plate," he said.
EU member-states and the European Commission have pledged more than €1.5 billion in official aid for rehabilitation and reconstruction in the region. The foreign ministers made clear yesterday that this sum represented additional resources that would not affect the EU's commitment to helping other regions in need of assistance, including in Africa.
They agreed to investigate the possibility of setting up an EU rapid response unit to deal with disasters.
The Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner, Mr Franco Frattini, said yesterday that the EU could offer temporary homes to hundreds of thousands of children affected by the tsunami. He said he would propose that such children should be allowed to come to Europe for a number of months to recover from the trauma of the disaster and to escape the threat of exploitation.
Mr Frattini said that such a move would require a change in EU rules on temporary asylum, which currently only cater to adults.
"My proposal is to extend this to children, allowing children in the areas devastated by the tsunami to come to Europe, spend some months here and then return home. There are thousands of European families ready to take them in," he said.
