Canada will send equipment to Sudan not troops: Graham
By ALEXANDER PANETTA, Canadian Press
OTTAWA, Sep 1, 2004 (CP) — Canada will send about $250,000 in military equipment but has no current plans to deploy soldiers to violence-ravaged Sudan, Defence Minister Bill Graham [photo] said Wednesday.
Canada will send vests, helmets and other gear to outfit troops of the African Union patrolling the Darfur region of the African country – described by the United Nations as the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“We will be supplying them with about a quarter of a million dollars worth of equipment that they specifically requested,” Graham said in a conference call from Bosnia.
Thousands of Canadian peacekeeping troops have been sent to Bosnia since violence broke out there in 1991. Only 650 remain and most of them will leave by December.
There is little evidence Canada might soon deploy a similar peacekeeping contingent to Sudan.
Pro-government Arab militia in Sudan have waged a counter-insurgency campaign that has seen widespread destruction of villages and the displacement of about a million people. Some 30,000 have been killed.
“There is no immediate plan to deploy troops there,” Graham said. “because the international community has generally considered that it is important that this matter be managed by the African Union forces that are there.”
“That is presently where everybody is. The Americans, the Europeans aren’t talking about, nobody’s talking about putting in troops at this time.”
He also suggested Canadian troops have been stretched thin in recent years with major peacekeeping commitments, notably in Afghanistan and the Balkans.
“There’s no question that our troops have been extraordinarily actively engaged for the past several years,” Graham said.
“We’ve made it clear – both to them and to the Canadian public – that we are taking time for their re-formation, for their training.”
A UN report Wednesday called for an immediate increase in the international monitoring force in Sudan, saying the government there has not stopped attacks against civilians or disarmed marauding militias in the western desert region of Darfur.
The report to the UN Security Council does not mention or recommend sanctions.