Ireland’s Wars: East Timor

The Irish Defence Forces never did much peacekeeping work on the Asian continent, if one does not include the Middle-East. UN work for the Irish Army there took the form of observer missions in places like Pakistan, and those tended to be small commitments of little notoriety. But there was one significant exception. For a five year spell beginning at the end of the 1990s, Ireland contributed a substantial number of troops to another complicated area of geopolitical conflict, exacerbated by harsh geographical conditions, this time in the islands of South-East Asia, and specifically that of Timor. In this short entry, we’ll take a quick look at the nature of that Irish deployment.

In 1974, a left-leaning coup in Portugal ousted the long-standing Estado Novo regime. In the aftermath, the new Portuguese authorities undertook a rapid withdrawal from their various colonial holdings, which included the eastern half of the island of Timor, north of Australia and east of Indonesia. As was so often the case in such quick withdrawal, internal violence among different East Timorese political factions resulted, before Indonesia invaded and occupied the region in late 1975, undertaking an unrecognised annexation. The resulting occupation was brutal, with the Indonesian military fighting against pro-independence militias for decades, while facing continual condemnation from the international community. A referendum held in 1999 showed a clear desire from a majority for independence, but the result prompted a further outbreak of violence from factions who desired integration with Indonesia, often backed by the Indonesian military. A succession of UN missions – the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), the Intervention Force in East Timor (INTERFET), the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and the UN Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) would be formed over the following few years, the work expanding from at first monitoring the referendum to a full-blown peacekeeping intervention. The Irish military would be involved from the start, sending observes to assist with the referendum, before a force of its special forces unit would be sent.

The current Army Ranger Wing was established as part of the Irish Army in 1980, but similar units had existed beforehand. “Special Assault Groups” had been created in the late 1960s, taking in numbers from the various branches of the Irish Defence Forces, and receiving advanced training, including in some cases stints with the US Army Rangers. A very specific focus of their creation had been the possibility of unique security challenges pertaining to Northern Ireland. The ARW as it currently exists was created after an increase in terroristic incidents worldwide, but of course especially within Ireland, with this special forces unit designed as a counter-terrorism exercise in large part. With a personnel strength that has varied between 100 and 150 down the years, the ARW represents the elite of the Irish Defence Forces, with specialisations in areas like bomb disposal, hostage rescue and maritime operations. Prior to 1999, they had been deployed aboard on one occasion, as part of the UNISOM II mission in Somalia, where they had been involved in a previously discussed ambush.

The initial presence of 30 Rangers formed part of a larger reconnaissance company within the New Zealander commitment, in further combination with Canadian troops. This battalion-sized unit had the responsibility of securing the south-west of East Timor from the predations of pro-Indonesia militias and the Indonesian military. As indicated by their status within a reconnaissance unit, the Rangers were often deployed on lengthy patrols through sections of the Timorese countryside, seeking out evidence of militia activity so that the larger battalion would have as much information as possible to work with. The larger task was to bring greater security to the area, so that the local civilian population would have the confidence to either remain in place or return after fleeing violence. Aside from patrolling, the Rangers would also be involved in humanitarian exercises and the detention of suspected militia members. Several different contingents of the Rangers would cycle into East Timor over the next few years, in what constituted, for them, a bloodless but not safe mission: there were several short engagements with militia forces reported throughout the period.

In time, the Irish would begin to add regular infantry forces to their Timorese deployment, though elements of the rangers remained present also. it was from the regular infantry that the only Irish fatality of the mission came from, when Private Peadar Ó Flaithearta was accidentally shot dead in a friendly fire incident, while his unit was patrolling in mountainous terrain. The mission remained largely the same for these forces throughout: to provide security for those regions near the Indonesian border, to mitigate against militia activity, to provide humanitarian aid as required and to engage with the local population. In 2002 East Timor, known today more accurately as Timor Leste, formally became independent, though the UN missions continued for several years afterward to buttress the new state’s development. The last of the Irish contingent would be withdrawn in May 2004, ahead of the mission’s winding down he following year.

It would be nice if we could say that Timor-Leste’s transition to democracy has resulted in a fully-functioning independent state that has resolved its many issues, but as is often the case with the aftermath of UN missions, lasting stability, both in terms of politics, economics and associated violence, has often been elusive, though it is important to note that the country in 2024 rates highly in terms of popular participation in democratic processes. That can at least partially be putdown to the work of the UN in concert with local actors. The mission there only had a small Irish presence at the best of times, with roughly 300 soldiers serving over a five year period, but the work of the ARW played its part, and provided the Irish Defence Forces the opportunity to employ its special forces in a manner that supported a critical UN mission.

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