Darfur activists urge world to send helicopters to UNAMID
July 31, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The world could easily provide helicopters needed by Darfur peacekeepers and NATO states alone could provide over six times the number required, Darfur campaigners said in a report on Thursday.
A lack of helicopters is one of the main problems facing the U.N.-African Union mission in Sudan’s Darfur region, which is far below its full strength and is also struggling with delays due to the Sudanese government and U.N. bureaucracy.
The UNAMID force needs six attack helicopters, 18 for transport and one for civilian use, but the countries asked for help have said they have none available.
A report published on Thursday said many countries would easily be able to provide the helicopters required.
“Many of these helicopters are gathering dust in hangars or flying in air shows when they could be saving lives in Darfur,” said a foreword to the report by ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and child rights activist Graca Machel said.
“This report sets out for the first time which states have the necessary helicopters and estimates how many are available for deployment to Darfur.”
The report named the Czech Republic, India, Italy, Romania, Spain and Ukraine as countries which between them could readily provide 71 transport helicopters to the mission. It added NATO member states could provide 104 helicopters.
India, which is traditionally a contributor to U.N. peacekeeping missions and is a heavy investor in Sudan’s oil industry, has 20 surplus helicopters available, it said.
UNAMID will be the world’s largest U.N.-funded peacekeeping force with 26,000 troops and police but around 9,500 only have been deployed so far to police the remote region the size of France.
The 36-page report said helicopters could have saved lives during a July 8 ambush of UNAMID which killed seven of the force and seriously wounded 19 others.
The report called “Grounded: the International Community’s Betrayal of UNAMID,” was researched by aviation expert Thomas Withington and endorsed by 30 rights groups and thinktanks.
Darfur jumped onto global agendas after Washington labelled the conflict genocide in 2004. The revolt launched by mostly non-Arab rebels 5-1/2 years ago has claimed an estimated 200,000 lives and driven 2.5 million from their homes.
Sudan rejects accusations of genocide and has resisted moves by the International Criminal Court to try President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes.
Salim Ahmed Salim, the former AU Darfur envoy, said the new report would “explode the myth” that with international commitments in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan there are not enough helicopters for UNAMID.
In an article in the International Herald Tribune he said UNAMID “was branded as the most ambitious peacekeeping mission ever. It is also one of the least supported.”
“UNAMID is an example of peacekeeping on the cheap, with disastrous results.”
(Reuters)