UN Council receptive to UN force in Chad and CAR
Feb 27, 2007 (UNITED NATIONS) — Security Council members were receptive on Tuesday to a U.N. force for Chad and the Central African Republic but must deal first with Chad’s president, who wants police and not soldiers.
This month, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recommended peacekeeping operations by up to 11,000 soldiers and police in the two countries to staunch spillover from the Darfur conflict in Sudan.
British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, who has led a Security Council mission to the region, said most members want to deploy in Chad after visiting refugee camps in June.
“They felt very guilty that the United Nations actually hasn’t been able to do more to protect the people in those camps,” Jones Parry said.
Chadian President Idriss Deby, who has sought international help for months, was reluctant to approve troops rather than just civilian police, arguing that Chad was chosen because Sudan has refused U.N. peacekeepers, Ban said.
Both countries are supporting each other’s rebels.
In Darfur, at least 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been chased from their homes since the conflict flared in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government, accusing it of neglect.
Eastern Chad has 232,000 Sudanese refugees and 120,000 of its own citizens chased from villages in Darfur, mainly by government-armed Janjaweed guerrillas.
In response, rebels, also known for abuses against civilians, are forcibly recruiting in the Chadian camps.
Jones Parry said the United Nations, with the consent of President Deby, should “try to do something on the border which would help bring stability to eastern Chad and would avoid some of the incursions.”
“But I hope in the discussions that are unfolding we will get a Security Council resolution” agreed in advance with the government of the landlocked central African country, he said.
FRANCE TO START WORK
France, the former colonial power in Chad with an air force contingent of 3,000 now there, would begin work on a resolution, diplomats said.
Slovakian Ambassador Peter Burian, this month’s council president, said no member had raised objections in closed talks, but “we need to consult the government of Chad.”
He suggested a Chadian official be invited to discuss the force “and raise any issue that might be problematic.”
Ghana’s U.N. Ambassador Nana Effah-Apenteng, whose country holds the presidency of the African Union, said the major obstacle was Deby’s resistance, adding: “Chad is a sovereign country and we have to respect that.”
The U.N. peacekeeping department, which has sent a technical team to Chad and the Central African Republic, is now organizing a political team to survey both countries and could talk to government officials then, Burian said.
Still, peacekeeping officials are concerned about recruiting more troops beyond the 18 existing U.N. operations around the globe with about 100,000 personnel.
That does not include the planned Darfur mission of a possible 17,000 troops and 500 police. The Khartoum government has not yet agreed to U.N. soldiers augmenting the 7,000 African peacekeepers now in Darfur.
(Reuters)