India to send troops to Sudan in September

NEW DELHI, June 3, 2004 (PTI) — While being non-committal over whether Indian troops would be sent to Iraq, a senior Army official said here today that a 1,500-strong Indian contingent would be deployed as part of UN Peace Keeping Force in Sudan in September-October.

“The major chunk of troop deployment in Sudan will be from India,” said Major General RPS Malhan, YSM, SM Additional Director General Staff Duties, while updating the media on India’s contribution in UN Peace Keeping Missions.

“We will send 1500 troops, along with some add-ons like hospital staff, two engineering companies,” Malhan said, not revealing the exact deployment positions.

Declining to comment on any troop deployment in Iraq, Malhan said that Indian Army had earmarked a brigade plus force for deployment for peace keeing under UN banner.

“The earmarked troops are not sitting idle. They continued to be operationally deployed in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast and once they get the go ahead they would need just weeks of orientation,” Malhan said.

India, is the fourth largest contributor to the UN peace keeping operations currently with deployment of over 2800 troops in Lebanon, Eriteria and Ethopia