Russia promises troops for U.N. peacekeeping mission in Sudan

MOSCOW, Feb 7, 2005 (AP) — Russia’s Foreign Ministry Monday strongly backed a U.N. plan to deploy a peacekeeping force to Sudan and pledged to contribute troops for the mission.

The plan, announced last week by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, proposes sending a 10,130-strong force to monitor a peace deal ending Sudan’s 21-year civil war – one of the most complex missions the U.N. has ever faced.

“We fully support the U.N. Secretary General’s recommendations for the deployment of a full-fledged peacekeeping mission in southern Sudan ,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “We are planning to directly participate in it.”

The ministry added that Moscow already had decided to send some 50 Russian military officers to act as U.N. military observers in Sudan . It also referred to President Vladimir Putin’s decision last week to send Russia’s Interior Ministry officers to Sudan to work as part of the U.N. police force.

Sudan’s government and rebels in the south signed a peace deal on Jan. 9 to end the African nation’s civil war and set up a national power-sharing administration with an autonomous south.

The U.N. deployment, which must be approved by the Security Council, should also provide humanitarian assistance to the millions of people displaced by that war, help demobilize child soldiers and tackle the problem of Sudan ‘s huge and largely unmarked mine fields.

While Russia’s military recently announced plans for a new unit that would be fully dedicated to peacekeeping operations, Moscow has curtailed its participation in such operations abroad in the past few years, citing financial concerns.

The final contingent of Russian forces left Kosovo in 2003 after four years of participation in peacekeeping operations in the Balkans.