France, Denmark, Indonesia ready to send Darfur peacekeepers
August 1, 2007 (PARIS) — France, Denmark and Indonesia offered to contribute to a joint United Nations-African Union mission for Darfur, a 26,000-strong force expected to be made up mostly of peacekeepers from Africa with backup from Asian troops.
The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the force, which, if fully deployed, would be the world’s largest peacekeeping operation, to help end four years of rape and slaughter of civilians in the vast Sudanese desert region. The peacekeepers were to be in Darfur by year’s end.
Major Western powers are expected to provide only limited manpower in the force, as many are already overstretched in existing peacekeeping efforts and conflicts such as Iraq, observers say. Britain’s military, for example, has 7,100 service members in Afghanistan and 5,500 in Iraq.
“We would consider requests to support the United Nations-Africans Mission in Darfur once we receive a formal request to do so,” Britain’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday in a statement, adding that it is assisting the existing AU mission in Darfur in areas including logistics and planning.
But a spokeswoman at the British foreign office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, in keeping with the ministry’s regulations, said Britain would not send ground forces: “We’re not going to be putting soldiers with guns and tanks in Darfur.”
The conflict in Darfur began in February 2003 when ethnic African tribes rebelled against what they considered decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government. Sudan’s government is accused of retaliating by unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed, a charge it denies. More than 200,000 people have died, and 2.5 million have been uprooted.
The new peacekeeping force will absorb and take over from the beleaguered 7,000-strong AU force now in Darfur no later than Dec. 31. The U.N. said the force, called UNAMID, will have “a predominantly African character,” as Sudan demanded.
African troops already in Darfur will stay there. Nigeria, which has about 2,000 troops in Darfur, is ready to send an additional battalion about 700 solders, said army spokesman Col. Mohammed Yusuf.
France offered to send personnel and participate in the chain of command, as well as take part in reconstruction and humanitarian efforts, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said. He did not say how many troops France might contribute.
Kouchner said UNAMID showed “a very new, very important phenomenon, which is that Africans want to take care of African affairs.” Speaking on RTL radio, he added that U.N. troops in the force “would come mostly from Asia.”
Denmark’s Defense Minister Soeren Gade said an international conference would flesh out the needs of the force, though he did not specify a time or location.
“That Denmark will take part, I consider that as certain,” Gade told TV2 News channel. “There are several possibilities. Beside the fact that there is a need for quite a lot of soldiers, there is a need for logistical staff, people in the (commanding) headquarters, ships that can ferry equipment on long distances, planes that can move equipment and personnel.”
Desra Percaya, spokesman for Indonesia’s foreign ministry, said the country was willing to contribute troops but was waiting for details on how many non-African troops are needed.
Several countries including Italy, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey, Thailand, and South Africa said they had not made a decision yet. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the country would send a small number of doctors and nurses, but no troops or security personnel, given its existing commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Solomon Islands.
China made no immediate response, though its special envoy on Darfur said in June that his country would seriously consider sending peacekeepers.
The 15-member Security Council’s approval of the peacekeeping force ended weeks of negotiations between its main sponsors, Britain and France, and the Sudanese government and its key backers including China, which imports two-thirds of Sudan’s oil.
The text was watered down several times to remove the threat of sanctions, which Sudan and China opposed, and authorization for the new force to seize or collect arms.
The force will include up to 19,555 military personnel, including 360 military observers and liaison officers, a civilian component including up to 3,772 international police, and 19 special police units with up to 2,660 officers.
The ultimate troop strength depends on the willingness of U.N. member states to contribute troops, police, logistics and sophisticated military hardware.
Dominique David, executive director of the French Institute of International Relations, said he expected few powerful, rich militaries to contribute troops, and that he believed the bulk of contributors would come from the developing world.
“In truth there are few powers with such interests (in the region) that they would be ready to run the risk of getting into a situation like this, which is extremely complex and extremely demanding, without having any idea of the political solution that would make it possible to set an exit date,” he said.
(AP)