Darfur peacekeepers will fail without more troops, equipment -UN

January 25, 2008 (EL FASHER, North Darfur) — Darfur’s peacekeeping force has resumed some patrols and returned to refugee camps since the U.N. took over this year, but the mission will ultimately fail without more troops and equipment, a top U.N. official said.

The force has less than half the planned 26,000 troops and police, and lacks crucial gear to pacify a region nearly the size of France, said Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary general for peacekeeping.

Guehenno was on a tour of Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died in five years of fighting between ethnic African tribes and Sudanese government forces.

The U.N. mission took over peacekeeping on Jan. 1, merging with an African Union force that had been too small and under-equipped to stem the fighting.

The AU force itself increasingly came under attack, and at least 50 of its troops were killed. It had stopped all patrols in Darfur and evacuated from refugee camps, leaving 2.5 million displaced people defenseless.

Despite its shortcomings, the U.N. mission, known as UNAMID, has made some progress, Guehenno said in an Associated Press interview in Darfur late Thursday. Police were returning to refugee camps during the day and troops have resume some patrols.

A contingent of Chinese engineers — the first members of the U.N. mission to deploy — has finally received its equipment and has made considerable progress in building new bases, he said. Lack of infrastructure, water and equipment is a major obstacle for peacekeepers in the arid and underdeveloped region.

Peacekeepers are “regaining ground mile by mile,” UNAMID commander Gen. Martin Agwai said in a separate interview with the AP. He said the troops were becoming “more visible, more mobile” in a region whose battered population has long clamored for U.N. help.

But Guehenno expressed concern about “the gap between expectations and what we’ll be capable of immediately achieving.”

The U.N. mission urgently needs 18 transport and six combat helicopters, but no country has offered them despite repeated requests, he said.

“I hope the international community will match its deeds to its words,” Guehenno said.

Each potential contributing nation has given “its own reasons” not to offer helicopters, Guehenno said. “But, cumulated, this response is difficult to understand, given the obvious needs in Darfur.”

Sudan’s government spent months resisting a U.N. intervention before agreeing in June to a compromise deal for a “hybrid force” that would remain predominantly African. It has since vetoed some offers for non-African units and is blamed for a series of bureaucratic hurdles that are delaying the mission.

The government is still negotiating the legal framework for the force, and even objects to the color of their helmets, which it wants to keep green in the case of African troops. Guehenno said there was “no question” all peacekeepers would retain traditional U.N. blue helmets.

Days after the mission began, a large U.N. supplies convoy was attacked by the Sudanese army. Multiple rebel groups roam the West Darfur zone where the convoy was attacked, and the government said the 12-minute shoot-out was a “mistake.”

The U.N. accepted the apology. But Guehenno said Sudanese authorities had been informed about the convoy’s whereabouts and warned peacekeepers could shoot back if they come under another such attack.

“What we’re saying loud and clear is that we have total freedom of movement and that no one can … intimidate us,” he said.

(AP)