Friday 30 November 2007
Dublin, Ireland - The European Union peacekeeping force supposed to protect refugees from the Darfur conflict could be delayed for two more months because it still lacks helicopters and hospital facilities, the Irish government and army announced.
The approximately 4,300-member force, under Irish command but drawn largely from France, was supposed to begin deploying next week in Chad and the Central African Republic along their borders with Sudan.
But Irish Defense Minister Willie O'Dea - who has been critical of EU colleagues' unwillingness to contribute air support - said the first EU troops would not arrive until January at the earliest. They would go only if other EU nations contribute approximately 15 helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and field-hospital support, he said Friday.
"It would be foolhardy and reckless in the extreme to go in without proper logistical and air support," O'Dea said in an interview.
The chief spokesman for the Irish Defense Forces, Commandant Gavin Young, said most troops might not arrive until March.
He said Ireland had hoped to deploy 60 of its elite rangers, backed by communications specialists and engineers, before Christmas. But this advance party would not arrive in Chad "until January at the earliest," he said.
An additional 400 Irish troops, supposed to arrive in January, would be delayed "potentially to the end of February or early March, while the force as a whole will be fully operational by the end of March," Young said.
Confirmation of the delays followed two EU-level meetings this month that failed to secure commitments for the needed equipment. Helicopters would make it possible for the small EU force to cover a border region that stretches from the southern edge of the Sahara Desert into central African jungle.
O'Dea, who has previously criticized Germany and Italy for refusing to contribute helicopters, said the EU force must have them to function effectively and to have the ability "to get out of a dangerous spot quickly."
The Irish government and military stressed that the delays had nothing to do with the deteriorating security situation on the ground on Chad's eastern border with Sudan.
Earlier Friday, a Chad rebel group called the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development declared what it called "a state of war against the French army or any other foreign forces" that deploy in the region.
It is one of several anti-government groups and criminal militias active in the region, only some of which are officially observing a cease-fire with Chad government forces.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the EU mission would continue regardless of the rebel threat. He was speaking at a Franco-Italian summit in Nice, southern France, and was not asked about Ireland's confirmation of deployment delays.
France already has 1,100 troops in Chad, a former French colony. It is expected to contribute about half of soldiers to the EU force, which is headquartered in Paris.
The EU force is supposed to complement a 26,000-member United Nations-African Union force destined for the Darfur region of Sudan itself. That largely African force also has yet to deploy, in part, because donor nations have not supplied sufficient equipment, including helicopters. Sudan also is refusing to accept U.N. soldiers from Western nations.
Four years of bloodshed between ethnic African rebels and Arab militias allegedly backed by the Arab-dominated government of Sudan have left an estimated 200,000 dead and driven 2.5 million from their homes in Darfur.
Ireland estimates that refugee camps in eastern Chad, the destination of Ireland's peacekeepers, are currently home to more than 180,000 Chadians and 236,000 Darfurians.
"I am disappointed," O'Dea said of the delays in getting peacekeepers there. "Every day that passes, people are suffering."
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