UN scrambles for troops for future Darfur force

Sept 25, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — The United Nations got its first pledges of troops for a proposed peacekeeping force in Sudan’s Darfur region at a meeting on Monday of 49 potential contributing nations.

Participants at the closed-door session said Norway had offered 250 logistics experts and together with Sweden, a battalion of engineers. Tanzania, Nigeria and Bangladesh pledged infantry soldiers.

But the force, approved by the U.N. Security Council, is still on paper only, with its goal of 22,500 soldiers and police. There is also no sign that Sudan’s government will allow the United Nations to take over the African Union operation in Darfur.

Without Khartoum’s permission, no nation will send troops to Darfur and risk a battle with the Sudanese military, which has increased its troops and aircraft in Darfur.

The African Union force of some 7,000 troops and monitors has agreed to stay until year’s end to help stop atrocities in Darfur but has been unable to stop the violence that has driven 2.5 million people from their homes and left an estimated 200,000 dead since 2003.

At the moment, the only foreseeable action is to reinforce the African troops, with AU nations having promised 4,000 additional soldiers. The United Nations plans to send 100 personnel to run communications and other equipment while Arab nations promised to contribute funds to the AU operation.

A 40-page briefing paper to the troop contributors pointed out the need for any contingents to be self-sufficient because of the arid climate and continuing threats to the world body, whether by Islamic militants or bandits.

The United Nations is already nearing 100,000 soldiers and civilians in some 18 peacekeeping operations around the world, most of them in Africa, at a cost of close to $5 billion a year. The U.N. peacekeeping department has a staff of just 600 to handle planning, logistics, command and control, communications and travel, considered too small to handle the operations compared to most governments in the world.

The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003, when non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government, claiming the region was being marginalized. In response, the government armed Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, which have been accused of murder, rape and looting.

In recent months, rebels have split into factions and carried out banditry and atrocities against civilians.

(Reuters)