The purpose of this Bill is to amend the Garda Síochána Act, 1924 and the Police Forces Amalgamation Act, 1925 to enable members of the Garda Síochána to serve outside the State with peacekeeping forces of the United Nations. As Senators will be aware, Ireland has been called on to supply in the next few weeks a national contingent of members of the Garda to serve with the United Nations forces in Namibia where they will, it is proposed, assist in the peaceful transfer of power in that country to its own population. The Garda Síochána Acts preclude members of the Garda from serving outside the State and therefore, amending legislation is required to enable us to respond to this request from the United Nations and indeed to be enabled to meet any future such request.
Ireland has taken a prominent interest in Namibian independence over many years. Indeed, since we joined the United Nations in 1955, successive Irish Governments have spoken out against South Africa's occupation of the territory and have urged the international community to bring pressure to bear on South Africa to withdraw from the territory so that its people could exercise their rights to self-determination.
One Irishman's name in particular will always be associated with the establishment of an independent Namibia. The late Seán MacBride served as the United Nations' Commissioner for Namibia from 1973 to 1977. As Commissioner for Namibia, Mr. MacBride's achievements included the establishment in 1976 of the United Nations Institute for Namibia in Lusaka, as the major training institution for the policy-making and administrative needs of an independent Namibia. The late Mr. MacBride was a champion of the international effort for Namibian independence and it is sad that he will not be around to see its achievement. There is no doubt that he played a major role in mobilising international support behind the quest for the independence of that territory.
I would like at this stage to recall the main outlines of the history of the Namibian question. In 1920, South Africa was entrusted by the League of Nations with a mandate over the territory of South West Africa, now called Namibia. After the demise of the League, South Africa, unlike other mandatory powers, declined in 1946 to place the territory under UN trusteeship. It declined also in 1949 to continue submitting reports to the UN on the territory as it was obliged to do under the UN Charter. Moreover, in 1950 it refused to accept the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice which held that the functions of supervision under the mandate should be exercised by the United Nations. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, while South Africa consolidated its position in Namibia and applied to the territory many of its apartheid policies, the UN continued with its efforts. In 1966 the General Assembly declared South West Africa to be henceforth a direct responsibility of the United Nations and the following year called on the Security Council to take effective measures to ensure the removal of the illegal presence of South Africa from the territory. In 1969, the Security Council reaffirmed the termination of South Africa's mandate by the Assembly, called upon South Africa to withdraw its illegal presence and stated that if South Africa failed to do so the Council would decide on necessary measures in accordance with the Charter.
Ireland fully supported the decision of the General Assembly to terminate the mandate and welcomed the Security Council's decision to assume its responsibilities.
The legal position was clarified beyond any doubt in an advisory ruling of the International Court in 1971 which held that South Africa was under an obligation to withdraw from Namibia immediately, and that the member states of the United Nations were under an obligation to recognise the illegality of South African presence there. This opinion was accepted by the Security Council and its efforts since then have been directed towards giving effect to these decisions.
These efforts have crystallised around two important Security Council Resolutions which provide the basis for the present settlement of the long running dispute over Namibia. Resolution 385 in 1976 declared it imperative that free elections under the supervision and control of the United Nations be held for the whole of Namibia. Resolution 435 in 1978 endorsed an independence plan for Namibia based on settlement drawn up the previous year by five members of the Security Council, the USA, Britain, France, the Federal Republic of Germany and Canada.
Following several abortive attempts by the UN to persuade South Africa to accept the UN settlement plan, the United States Government in May 1988 initiated a series of talks with Angola, Cuba and South Africa to consider possibilities for a settlement to the conflicts in both Namibia and Angola. These negotiations finally bore fruit in December 1988 with the formal signing in New York of a series of agreements which paved the way with respect to Namibia for the official establishment of the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG). The role of the group is to oversee the transition of Namibia to independence.
The proposed programme for UNTAG, which is currently under review by the UN, envisages the establishment of a group comprising a military component of 7,500 of whom about 4,500 would be deployed initially, a police component of 500 and a civilian staff the number of which has not been determined. The functions of the police component, which will be required for a period of up to one year will be essentially to prevent any intimidation or interference in the electoral process and to oversee the conduct of the existing police force in Namibia during the transition period. A high point in the transition process will be the holding of free elections which is planned for November of this year. The UN police force will be organised in units drawn from national contingents from the following countries: Austria, Barbados, Fiji, Ghana, Jamaica, Netherlands, Sweden and, subject to the passage of this legislation, Ireland. Contingents may also be drawn from Bangladesh, Egypt, New Zealand, Nigeria and Senegal.
The Government have already agreed to a UN request to provide 20 military observers for Namibia and these will be drawn from the ranks of the Permanent Defence Forces.
The United Nations has requested that the Garda contingent to serve with UNTAG should consist of up to 35 members of the 500 strong force. The numbers and ranks of those it is proposed to send is as follows: one chief superintendent, two superintendents, two inspectors, seven sergeants and 23 gardaí. The financial arrangements are likely to be similar to those for UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
Senators will, I am sure, be conscious in discussing this issue that Namibia is the last major colonial issue before the United Nations. A peaceful transition to independence there will represent a major success for the United Nations Organisation and, indeed, for the rule of law and for the principle of settling international disputes by negotiation. Our commitment to Namibian independence and our peacekeeping record with the UN in many parts of the world suggest that we should agree to help the United Nations in resolving one of its longest outstanding issues and one of its largest ever undertakings. I am confident that our gardaí can play a distinguished and honourable role in the historic task of helping to bring independence and self-determination to Namibia and peace and security to a troubled region.
I would like to turn now to the contents of this short Bill. Section 2, subsection (1) empowers the Government to send a contingent of the Garda Síochána for service outside the State with an international United Nations Force and subsection (2) of section 2 enables the Government to determine the number and ranks of the members of the Garda Síochána who would be included in such a contingent.
Section 3 of the Bill ensures that all the members of such a Garda contingent would be volunteers and that, ultimately, the decision about whose offers to serve would be accepted would rest with the Garda Commissioner.
Section 4 provides for registration, in this State, of the death outside the State, of a member of the Garda Síochána, his spouse or other relative while such a member is on service overseas with the United Nations. The section also provides for the registration of the birth outside the State of a child of such a member.
In moving Second Stage of this Bill in Dáil Éireann yesterday, I remarked that the former Taoiseach, the late Seán Lemass, acknowledged on a similar occasion that our adherence to the UN Charter imposed substantial obligations on this country. He referred on that occasion, which in fact was the Bill enabling Army contingents to serve on UN missions abroad, to the relevance of Article 29 of our Constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann. Senators will doubtless recall that that Article affirms Ireland's "devotion to the ideal of peace and friendly co-operation amongst nations, founded on international justice and morality". As Seán Lemass saw it, it was not only our moral duty but also in our national interest to support the United Nations to act in any situation in any part of the world that might endanger peace and to be prepared, where necessary, to contribute from our resources to the fulfilment of the UN's responsibilities in such event.
I would suggest that the sentiments expressed by Seán Lemass on Irish involvement on UN peacekeeping activities are as valid today as when he voiced them almost 30 years ago. Our experience and proud record in this respect confirm me in commending this Bill to the House today.