NATO considering UN request to help African peacekeepers in Darfur

By PAUL AMES, Associated Press Writer

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Sep 15, 2004 (AP) — NATO is considering a request from the United Nations to provide military backup to a possible African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, officials said Wednesday.

Alliance officials ruled out sending NATO troops to Darfur, and said any cooperation would limited to providing African peacekeepers with support such as planning, communications and logistics.

AU officials have proposed a 3,000-strong peacekeeping force with a mandate to protect civilians in Darfur, but the Sudanese government has dismissed the idea, saying it alone is responsible for internal security.

The union currently has 80 military observers protected by 300 troops monitoring an oft-violated cease-fire in the region where tens of thousands people have been killed and 1.2 million have been driven from their homes by what the United States calls a genocide campaign by government-allied militia.

U.S. diplomats in Africa confirmed Wednesday that unspecified numbers of “American military personnel” are supporting the AU observers in Sudan.

NATO officials said it was the first time the United Nations has come to the alliance for help in an African peacekeeping mission and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer had asked the 26 allies to respond quickly and positively.

De Hoop Scheffer raised the prospect of a NATO role in a speech last week after a telephone discussion about Darfur with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

“We have to think creatively how we can work together. For example, by giving logistic or other assistance to the African Union, if it would ask,” de Hoop Scheffer told a conference Thursday in Helsinki, Finland.

NATO is currently running peacekeeping operations in Kosovo, Bosnia and Afghanistan and is offering logistical backup to a multinational force headed by Poland as part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.