US willing to send military planners for UN Darfur mission
Feb 10, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — The U.S. is willing to send military planners to help prepare for a United Nations peacekeeping force in Sudan’s Darfur region, according to a letter sent to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week.
In the letter to Annan, dated Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton wrote that the U.S. Military Staff Committee at the U.N. has offered to send military planners to aid in preparations. It said the planners were prepared to arrive before Monday, Feb. 13. There was no other offer of troops.
Annan said Thursday that when he meets with U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday he will ask for the U.S. to play a major role in a Darfur peacekeeping mission. Annan said the Darfur mission will need a “completely different force.” That means highly trained troops with solid logistical support, backed by air power, with the ability to move quickly.
Bolton said in his letter that Annan’s meeting Monday with Bush “would be an ideal venue for you to raise your views concerning Darfur and to outline possible solutions.”
Annan said Darfur’s plight is too severe for rich nations, including the United States, to simply fund the mission while third-world nations contribute troops – a practice that is largely the norm for U.N. peacekeeping missions around the world.
“It is not going to be easy for the big and powerful countries with armies to delegate it to third world countries,” Annan told reporters. “They will have to play a part if we are going to stop the carnage that we see in Darfur.”
Annan said he planned to raise the issue with Bush during a White House meeting Monday. The United States currently pays about a quarter of the U.N. peacekeeping budget, which topped $5 billion in 2005, but provides a very small percentage of troops or police.
On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council authorized planning for the United Nations to take over peacekeeping duties in Darfur from the African Union, whose 7,000 troops have been hampered by shoddy equipment, poor training and lack of funds.
The African Union troops have made a difference where they are stationed, but have been unable to bring lasting peace to Darfur, where an estimated 180,000 people have died in violence since 2003. The United States and several other nations have said genocide occurred in Sudan.
The U.N. mission must send a message to those responsible for the violence “that we have a force that is capable to respond, a force that is everywhere and a force that will be there on time to prevent them from intimidating and killing the innocent civilians,” Annan said.
The United States has been reluctant to contribute troops since 18 U.S. soldiers were killed in clashes with gunmen in 1993 during the peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
U.S. Mission spokesman Richard Grenell would not comment on whether the United States planned to contribute troops.
(ST/AP)