India to send troops to Sudan

NEW DELHI, Aug 18, 2004 (Xinhua) — India will send an infantry battalion with support elements to Sudan to join a UN peacekeeping mission, the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported Wednesday.

The Indian contingent would include an air force unit comprising six utility helicopters and a special police unit, IANS quoted Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed as saying.

The UN Security Council resolved to send a peacekeeping mission to Sudan after the government and rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement agreed to end the civil war that began in 1983 and claimed more than 1.5 million lives.

India, however, has not committed any troops for the Darfur province in western Sudan, the latest focus of international attention, with government-backed militia groups being accused of carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Arabs there.

Indian troops are currently deployed with UN peacekeeping missions in Lebanon, Ethiopia-Eritrea and Congo, while Indian police personnel are serving in the UN mission in Kosovo, Ahamed said.

Bilateral relations between India and Sudan continue to expand in various fields. The volume of bilateral trade between the two countries reached 110 million US dollars in 2002.