EU Defense ministers build force to protect Darfur refugees
September 28, 2007 (EVORA, Portugal) — The European Union’s defense ministers have assembled a 2,000-strong force to help protect Darfur refugees in Chad and the Central African Republic, officials said Friday.
“We’re at roughly 2,000,” French Defense Minister Herve Morin said of E.U. member state commitments to the U.N.-mandated force. About 1,500 of those promised troops are French, he said.
Paris proposed the contingent in July. Preliminary E.U. plans were to send up to 3,000 troops to refugee camps on the border with Darfur, but some countries already bear heavy military commitments, including the U.N. mission in southern Lebanon and NATO’s ISAF mission in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council authorized the E.U. force, as well as U.N. police, to shield tens of thousands of refugees and ensure humanitarian aid reaches those in need.
The four-year conflict in Darfur has left more than 200,000 people dead and has displaced 2.5 million.
The deployment is the latest test of the EU’s external security policy, but promises of troops and equipment have come in slowly.
“Several colleagues have indicated that they will commit themselves to this (force), so I assume that the mission can take place as a truly European mission,” German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said.
Jung said Darfur was “a major catastrophe,” but added: “It’s a very risky mission.”
No breakdown of the troop commitments were provided. However, diplomats familiar with the two-day talks in southern Portugal said Ireland, Sweden, Poland and Belgium had made troops available.
Germany said it would provide only political support. Austrian Defense Minister Norbert Darabos said Vienna was willing to send military engineers, and Spain promised only logistical help.
The mission still requires final approval from all 27 EU governments.
Portuguese Defense Minister Nuno Severiano Teixeira said the EU needs its own military capacity outside of international defense organizations to show its common security policy is “credible.”
Darfur’s plight has spilled over Sudan’s border into the northeast Central African Republic and eastern Chad, bringing a deterioration of security in the region and worsening the plight of civilians forced to flee their homes.
(AP)