France says EU force arriving to protect Darfur refugees

February 22, 2008 (PARIS) — Some 500 European soldiers have already arrived in Chad as part of the EU peacekeeping mission to protect refugees from Darfur, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Friday.

The minister told reporters that planes are bringing equipment into the capital of the central African country, N’Djamena, and the eastern city of Abeche “nearly all the time” ahead of the full arrival of the troops.

The bulk of the 3,700-strong peacekeeping force, known as EUFOR, is expected to be flown in next month. A 150-member advance team arrived earlier, and Kouchner told reporters that Swedish and Polish troops are deploying.

The force — starting up on a delayed schedule because of fighting in Chad — is to help protect thousands of refugees who have fled fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Kouchner, speaking after a meeting with Chadian Foreign Minister Ahmad Allam-Mi, said that the European Union troops’ mandate allows them to defend refugees under attack and themselves “and are very capable of doing so.”

However, he added, “There is no question of turning this force into an offensive operation against whatever enemy, or even an invader. Not at all.”

He was apparently referring to Chad’s contention that rebels that recently attacked the capital came from neighboring Sudan and did so at Sudan’s urging.

The French minister also regretted the “great” difficulties in trying to deploy a hybrid force of U.N. and African Union troops in Sudan, which is “not being very cooperative.”

Chad’s foreign minister said the refugees fleeing Sudan imposed an increasing problem on his own country and asked the international community to pressure Sudan to “end its bombarding” of the civilian population and step up deployment of the hybrid force.

“The cause of all, of the catastrophe that is happening to us …, is first Darfur, Sudan,” Allam-Mi said.

(AP)