The aid agency GOAL is calling for the government here to urge NATO to send ground troops into Kosovo. There is speculation that the issue will be discussed at a NATO summit tomorrow. John O'Shea of GOAL says that the Irish government should immediately issue a statement to encourage NATO to deploy ground troops to the region. He added that it is irrelevant that Ireland is not a member of NATO, it still has a duty to get involved in the crisis.
Minister of State, Liz O'Donnell, has confirmed that Ireland is prepared to accept up to a thousand Kosovar refugees. The minister was responding to an appeal from the United Nations Commission for Refugees, which has requested the international community to begin preparations for receiving refugees fleeing Kosovo.
Ms. O'Donnell told RTÉ Radio that contingency plans were already in place and that authorities across the country were preparing for the arrival of several hundred ethnic Albanians within the next couple of weeks. Over the next couple of weeks the government is expected to receive between two and three hundred in the first instance, she said.
She added that discussions with these agencies on numbers were underway and that institutions in Waterford, Wexford and Cork City were expected to be in a position to accept the first round very quickly.
