France asks UN to protect Sudanese refugees in Chad
June 16, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — France asked the United Nations on Thursday to consider ways to protect refugee camps in Chad, where rebels forcibly recruit Darfur survivors of murderous attacks by Sudanese militia.
France’s U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere and his British counterpart, Emyr Jones Parry, addressed the U.N. Security Council on the 15-member body’s recent trip to Sudan and Chad, aimed at convincing the Khartoum government to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force in its western region of Darfur.
But the war in Darfur has spilled over to Chad. Sudanese militia, known as Janjaweed, have streamed across the border to kill, torture and rape non-Arab civilians while the rebel Sudan liberation Army has recruited, often by force, young men to join the fight.
“It is appropriate for the secretary-general (Kofi Annan) to consider this question of international protection of the camps and make recommendations to us,” de la Sabliere told the council. “Personally I can only see advantages of this.”
He did not elaborate on what kind of protection, such as troops, police or guards, he had in mind.
Three years of fighting between rebel groups and the Janjaweed militias, originally organized by Sudan’s government, have killed tens of thousands of people in Darfur.
Some 2.3 million people have been herded into dusty camps, more than 200,000 have escaped to Chad and 50,000 Chadians living along the border have fled from the Janjaweed.
Chadian president Idriss Deby had told the diplomats, after they visited camps near Goz Beida, about 60 miles (100 km) from the Sudan border, that he was unable to care for the homeless and asked for international help.
“If nothing is done in this area, we will see a deterioration in all respects,” de la Sabliere said.
France, which has about 1,000 airmen stationed in its former colony, has said it would not provide protection for the Chadian camps but would join any international operation.
Jones Parry, during the visit, was more noncommittal about U.N. security for Chad, saying the camps needed police protection rather than the kind of U.N. troops envisioned for Darfur.
The Khartoum government denies backing the Janjaweed but agreed under a May 5 peace agreement with the largest rebel group to disarm and disband them.
Jones Parry said that Sudan’s President Omar Hassan Bashir made “clear that he did not think external troops should be mandated to attack Sudanese.”
“We looked to them to fulfill that responsibility now.”
The Khartoum government, however, has not accepted U.N. peacekeepers for Darfur and has objected to a robust mandate the council wants so the troops can protect civilians.
However, Jones Parry said, “By the end of our visit, the mission felt we had edged further toward the probability of the government accepting a U.N. force.”
Tanzanian ambassador, Augustine Mahiga, noted that the African Union, now fielding troops in Darfur, firmly supported U.N. peacekeepers and was “waiting for expeditious deployment.”
The council mission, from June 5 to June 12, went to Khartoum, Darfur, Juba, the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to talk to African Union officials, and visited refugee camps in Chad as well as the capital, N’Djamena. The trip ended in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
(Reuters)