IBA War Crimes Conference: Speaker Profiles

“Peace keepers responsibilities and liabilities in conflict zones”

Session Chair:

Lewis Power QC

A senior advocate who has been called to the Bar of England & Wales and also Northern Ireland. His area of specialism is as defence counsel in complex, serious international criminal cases. Lewis recently joined 7BR as a senior counsel specialising in serious criminal cases nationally and in international courts and tribunals. See Lewis’ full profile here.

Panel Speakers:

Maj Gen (Rted) Chip Chapman Consultant

Maj Gen (Retd) Chip Chapman is a commentator and contributor on international affairs, strategic analysis and counter-terrorism for SKY TV and other media outlets. He was commissioned into the Parachute Regiment from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Following early years of regimental command ( at platoon level in the Falklands War and Captain and Major levels in Northern Ireland) and early staff appointments, Chip Chapman commanded 2 PARA with deployments to Northern Ireland, and to Macedonia to help cement the Lake Ohrid peace agreement. His final 10 years of military service were mainly involved in counter-terrorism, working closely with UK and international agencies to counter Irish and international terrorist threats, including Al-Qaedi and laterly ISIS concluding with an appointment as Senior British Military Advisor to United States Central Command in Tampa, Florida responsible for geo-political and geo-strategic analysis and contingency planning in the Middle East. He retired from the military in 2013 after 33 years service.

Lt Col Jerry Lane Legal Advisor & Instructor at the Defence Forces Training Centre, Curragh, County Kildare

Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Lane is a serving military lawyer with twenty eight years’ service in the Infantry Corps and the Defence Forces Legal Service of the Defence Forces of Ireland. He is currently posted to the Defence Forces Training Centre with responsibility for military legal advice and with additional responsibility for instruction in military law, international humanitarian law, ethics and ethical decision making. He has served as a Legal Advisor to several formation commanders at home and overseas and as a courts martial prosecutor. In addition he has served abroad with United Nations Missions in Lebanon (UNIFIL)(1994-1995) as an Infantry Platoon Commander, and Kosovo (KFOR)(2001-2002) as Unit S1, and (2007 – 2008) as a Legal Adviser at the HQ of Multinational Task Force Centre, KFOR. He deployed to Chad as a legal adviser to the Irish contingent at the EUFOR CHAD/ RCA mission (2008).

Lt Col Mark Prendergast Irish Defence Forces, Donegal

Lt Col Mark Prendergast has recently returned from a six month tour of duty commanding an Irish Defence Forces unit with UNDOF on the Golan Heights in Syria. This unit deployed on the 31st March 2015 to serve as the UNDOF Force Commander’s Reserve and during their six (6) month tour of duty they were frequently tasked as the mission’s Quick Reaction Force in support of their multinational partner nations. Lt Col Prendergast’s multinational operational experience has included three (3) deployments to UNIFIL in South Lebanon, two years with UNTSO in Damascus and on the Golan Heights, a tour of duty as a military observer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with MONUC, served as Battle Group Operations officer Finnish/Irish Battle Group KFOR in Kosovo and most recently command of the Force Commander’s Reserve in UNDOF.

Commandant (Retired) Eamonn Smyth

Smyth Served with UNIFIL (four tours of duty), ONUCA (Central America operating in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvandor) and OSCE KVM Kosovo (Kosovo Verification Mission). Smyth led a Special Task Force which was tasked to the ‘Qana Massacre’ where over 100 IDPs were killed and hundreds more injured. He served with OSCE KVM & OSCE Missions investigating and gathering information on alleged war crimes, killing/exhumation sites: was one of the first investigators to reach the killing site in Racak where 46 civilians were executed. Seconded to UN ICTY, he was appointed Forensic Project Officer, Kosovo, this involved the exhumations of just under 2,000 mortal remains with the primary goals of collecting evidence of war crimes, identification of those killed and returning mortal remains to families. From 2002-13, Smyth was UN ICTY Head of Mission for both Kosovo and FYR Macadonia

Lt Col Andrew Trimble Consultant, Belfast

Lt Col (Retd) Andrew Trimble was commissioned from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst into the Royal Corps of Signals. His early career was spent in Germany commanding signal corps units. His staff appointments have been on the operations staff of a 2* Artillery Headquarters, as an intelligence analyst responsible for strategic analysis and reporting to the Whitehall UK Joint Intelligence Committee sub-Saharan issues including on Rwanda & Burundi. He led the Whitehall Bosnia Crisis Team during the IFOR deployment, was an Ops Team Leader at the UK PJHQ, a member of the UK planning team for operations in Bosnia, Kosovo and for Ops Northern & Southern Watch. He was a member of the MODUK planning team for NATO operations in Serbia and Kosovo. He was a member of the Chancery staff in the British Embassy Washington and a key interlocutor with the Pentagon post 9/11. Andrew Trimble was Director of Operational & Intelligence Capability at Headquarters Northern Ireland (2004-08).

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