Dutch government to send three helicopters to Sudan’s Darfur

AMSTERDAM, July 08, 2004 (AP) — The Dutch Foreign Ministry said Thursday it will send three helicopters to the troubled Darfur region of Sudan to assist in distributing humanitarian aid.

The decision followed a request from the African Union Tuesday during a visit by the Dutch Development Cooperation Minister Agnes van Ardenne to the area, a Foreign Ministry statement said.

It also came amid criticism from aid organizations that the Netherlands, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, wasn’t responding swiftly enough to the crisis.

As a result of fighting between government forces and Arab militias known as the Janjaweed thousands of people have been killed and more than a million forced to flee. The militias are allegedly responsible for rapes, pillaging and razing hundreds of villages, causing the huge humanitarian crisis.

Van Ardenne said the air support is critical because of the size of Darfur, which is as big as France.

The Netherlands will finance three months of aid and the E.U. will then take over the costs.

“In addition to providing humanitarian aid, the E.U. will continue to increase political pressure on the Sudanese government to disarm the militias and begin peace talks,” the statement said.