Irish FM to visit Sudan, Chad for Darfur troops deployment
November 13, 2007 (DUBLIN, Ireland) — Ireland’s foreign minister departed Tuesday for a three-day visit to Sudan and Chad, where he planned to inspect border refugee camps in advance of deployment of two United Nations-mandated peacekeeping forces in the region.
But the timetable for deployment of the EU force, which is under Irish command and composed largely of French troops, appeared to be slipping.
The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday that the first troops would arrive in December but most would be deployed in January — weeks later than originally hoped. It added that the EU force was expected to reach 4,300 members, more than the EU’s original plans for 3,000.
Col. Philippe de Cussac, spokesman at the European force’s headquarters in Paris, described the 4,300 figure as the best-case scenario, but the mission had yet to secure that level of commitments from EU members and could cope with fewer “in less comfortable conditions.”
Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said he would travel overnight to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and meet a government delegation Wednesday led by Foreign Minister Ali Karti, Second Vice President Ali Osman and presidential assistant Nafie el Nafie, Sudan’s chief negotiator on Darfur.
He said Ireland would donate €500,000 (US$730,000) to a United Nations fund supporting multi-factional negotiations on Darfur’s future. These talks, under joint U.N.-African Union stewardship, are scheduled to resume next month in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
Ahern said he intended to impress on Sudan the need to hasten, not hinder, U.N. plans to deploy peacekeeping forces within Darfur itself. This 26,000-member, largely African force — named UNAMID, or the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur — is supposed to take control of the region by the end of the year.
On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Sudan of dragging its feet on those plans. He said Sudan received the U.N.’s list of contributing nations and forces Oct. 2 and should have approved their deployment by now.
The peacekeepers would seek to end four years of bloodshed between ethnic African rebels and Arab militias allegedly backed by the Arab-dominated government of Sudan. Militia hit-and-run attacks on Darfur villages have left an estimated 200,000 dead and driven 2.5 million from their homes.
Ahern planned to travel Thursday to meet Chad’s leaders in their capital, N’Djamena, and receive briefings from aid agencies already deployed in refugee camps that are assigned for European Union protection.
He planned to travel Friday by helicopter to some of those camps, more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) east of the capital.
“This is both a vital and challenging EU mission that will increase security for the hundreds of thousands of people in eastern Chad displaced by the regional crisis,” Ahern said.
He said the Tripoli talks would be “absolutely vital for the prospects of securing lasting peace and security in the region. Without a stable and peaceful environment, the current humanitarian crisis will continue.”
(AP)