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STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON PJ XCEATING MP
COMMITMENT OF AUSTRALIAN FORCES TO SOMALIA
The Government has decided today to provide a lrge-scale
commitment of Australian forces to the United Nations
mandated Operation Restore Hope in Somalia.
Tragic famine and clan warfare in Somalia have taken the
lives of an estimated quarter of a million Somalia and
two million more are immediately at risk of starvation.
The extent and severity of the famine has been horribly
compounded by the total collapse of law and order.
Predatory bands of gunmen have preyed upon aid shipments
for private gain in a way that the entire international
community has found repugnant.
In this appalling situation Australian and other
international Non-Government Organisations ( MO0s) have
shown great courage and compassion, struggling against
frightening odds to get food and medicine to the
suffering and the starving.
Australians have been rightly proud of the efforts of
these groups. The Australian public have privately
donated an estimated $ 11 million to the relief effort in
Somalia, and the Government has added S8.5 million in
this calendar year.
In this situation, the United Nations has tried to
facilitate the delivery of aid. It created~ UNOSOM~ aG a
peacekeeping operation.
But UNOSOM was slow to get underway and was not
structured adequately to deal with the problems it faced.
Somalis continued to die.
That is why we welcomed President Bush's action in
Offering to provide substantial US troops to a now
coalition of forces that would try to enforce the peace
in Somalia, not simply keep it.
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Operation Restore Hope is a unique operation. The
United Nations has never before sanctioned intervention
on such a scale in the internal affairs 6-t a memnberstate,
for humanitarian purposes.
It is important that Operation Restore Hope succeed, both
for the people of Somalia and to show that after the Cold
War, the international community can cooperate to relieve
suffering. The Australian Government has decided therefore to
provide an infantry battalion group of about
including a r educed squadron of armoured personnel
carriers ( APC&) and associated administrative support.
Initial elements of the battalion group will leave
Australia before Christmas. The others will arrive in
Somalia by about 10 January 1993.
The battalion group will be provided in the timeframe
required by the coalition of forces to enable it to make
a worthwhile contribution to the overall operation. The
estimated additional cost of sending a battalion group to
Operation Restore Hope will be $ 19.5 million.
ThQ battalion will be in Somalia for 17 weeks, after
which it will be withdrawn.
We will then expand the size of the Movement Control Unit
( MCU) which we have already committed to the follow-up
UNOSOM operation from 30 to 45 personnel.
The contribution of about 900 personnel will be the
largest commitment of Australiian ground forces Overseas
in the last 20 years.
With our already substantial commitment in Cambodia, this
places limitations on Australia's scope to participate in
further acekeeping peffort a in the near futuee รต . But
Australia is proud to take its place as part of this
coalition to enforce and keep a just and humanitarian
peace.
My thoughts and those of the Government and Australian
people are also with the men and women of our battalion
group as they prepare for a very different January from
the traditional Australian summler holiday period.
We wish them every success in their task and look forward
to welcoming them home safely to Australia at the end of
their deployment.
CANBERRA 15 December 1992
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