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Unohdettu taistelu. Jadotville kertoo tositarinan 150 irlantilaisesta YK-sotilaasta, jotka joutuivat tuhansien kongolaisten sotilaiden ja ulkomaisten palkkasotureiden piirittämiksi.
Lähes viikon mittainen tilanne oli osa Kongon kriisiä, eli levottomuuksia, jotka alkoivat vuonna 1960 Kongon itsenäistymisen jälkeen ja kestivät viisi vuotta. Jadotville on kaupunki, jonka nimi on nykyään Likasi. Ei mikään ihmeellinen elokuva. Ihmeenä sen sijaan voi pitää sitä että "A" Company, 35th Battalion (UN service) of the Irish Army ONUC, ei menettänyt tulimyrskyssä yhtään miestään, mutta tuotti vastustajalle pääministeri Tsomben johtamille joukoille massiiviset tappiot, n. 1300 miestä kaatuneina ja haavoittuneina.
Irlannin armeijan johto halusi unohtaa tapahtuneen ja piti komppanian antautumista häpeällisenä. Vasta vuonna 2005 YK-rauhanturvaavien maine palautettiin. Komppania jätettiin yksin eikä sille yritetty toimittaa juuri mitään vahvistuksia eikä sillä ollut edes raskasta aseistusta. Rauhanturvaajien kohtelu on häpeätahra YK:n ja Irlannin lipussa.
Kirjallisuutta Jadotvillen taistelusta näyttää olevan kiitettävästi. On hyvä, että asiaa ei ole unohdettu. Irlantin YK-komppania joutui pelkäksi uhrattavaksi pelinappulaksi shakkilaudalla kylmän sodan ollessa arimmillaan suurvaltojen välillä, jotka väänsivät keskenään, kuten tavallista, Afrikan maaperän rikkauksista. Mädät YK-virkamiehet ja sotilasjohto eivät piitanneet rahtuakaan miesten kohtalosta.
The Siege of Jadotville ( Richie Smyth, 2016 ) 3/5
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The Irish soldier has never been a stranger to fighting the enemy with the odds stacked against him. The notion of charging into adversity has been a cherished part of Ireland's military history. In September 1961, another chapter should have been written into the annals, but it is a tale that lay shrouded in dust for years.The men of A Company, Thirty-Fifth Irish Infantry Battalion, arrived in the Congo as a United Nations contingent to help keep the peace. For many it would be their first trip outside their native shores. Some of the troops were teenage boys, their army-issue hobnailed boots still unbroken. They had never heard a shot fired in anger. Others were experienced professional soldiers but were still not prepared for the action that was to take place.Led by Commandant Pat Quinlan, A Company found themselves tasked with protecting the European population at Jadotville, a small mining town in the southern Congolese province of Katanga. It fell to A Company to protect those who would later turn against them. On September 13th, 1961, the bright morning air of Jadotville was shattered by the sound of automatic gunfire.The men of A Company found their morning mass parade interrupted, and within minutes they went from holding rosaries to rifles as they entered the world of combat. This was to be no Srebrenica; though cut off and surrounded, the men of Jadotville held their ground and fought.This is their story.
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"It is a pity that we, who never believed in the use of force, must suffer for the blunders of little dictators and stupid military leaders...We did not come here to shoot Africans, we came to help them...I was not prepared to let my brave men die for nothing." - Comdt Patrick Quinlan, Jadotville, September 1961
In 1961, during the United Nations intervention in the Katangan conflict in the Congo, central Africa, a company of Irish peacekeeping troops was forced to surrender to soldiers loyal to Katanga’s prime minister, Moise Tshombe. Originally dispatched to protect Belgian colonists in Jadotville, they were isolated, without water, supplies or support when they were attacked and forced to defend themselves in a brutal and bloody five day battle. Shamefully neglected by their superiors, they were portrayed as cowards upon their return home.
Heroes of Jadotville: the Soldiers’ Story tells, in the words and memories of those who fought there, what really happened in Africa that fateful September. Rose Doyle uses interviews, reports, journals and letters to bring answers and clarity to an episode long ignored. She blows the lid on the real story of what happened in Africa, exposing how Irish peacekeeping soldiers became pawns in an international affair for control of Katanga and its vast mineral wealth.
About the author:
Rose Doyle is a writer and journalist. Her novels, seventeen in all, include Fate and Tomorrow (set in the Congo in 1902) and Shadows Will Fall – both international bestsellers. Trade Names, the book of her long-running series in The Irish Times, was published by New Island in 2004. Comdt Patrick Quinlan, who led the Irish UN troops at Jadotville, was her uncle.
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