Darfur: NATO willing to help UN; EU eyes Congo

But will Sudan let UN in?

NATO is prepared to support a U.N. force in the Darfur region of Sudan, the alliance's secretary-general told President Bush in a White House visit Monday.

"I'm quite sure, as I told the president, that when the U.N. comes, the NATO allies will be ready to do more in enabling a United Nations force in Darfur," Jaap De Hoop Scheffer told reporters after his meeting with Bush...

...Bush said the African Union must request that its mission in Darfur be converted to a U.N. mission. When that happens, NATO can move in with U.S. help "to make it clear to the Sudanese government that we're intent upon providing security for the people there and intent upon helping work toward a lasting peace agreement," Bush said...

"I'm not talking about NATO forces on the ground," he [De Hoop Scheffer] said later as he left the State Department. "But could you enable the mission by giving logistical support, by going on in the transport of the forces, by giving training, then I think the NATO allies would take a very positive stand on that."

Earlier this month Sudan and the African Union agreed to extend the mandate of AU peacekeeping forces in Darfar to September, at which time they would be allowed to be merged into a larger U.N. force. But later Sudan said it will reject the proposed deployment of U.N. forces to Darfar...

Even if Sudan agrees--good luck--nothing until September at the earliest. And the UN Security Council (Russia, China) will not act on its own. How long, oh Lord, how long?

H/t to Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs.

Update: Meanwhile, European countries--trying to give the EU a military dimension (nice way to disperse scarce military resources away from NATO)--are getting closer to the heart of darkness.

Four months (see below): now how long and how "robust" is that? I fear the nature of those supposed to be helped may be relevant--cf. Rwanda, Darfur.

Germany has agreed to lead a European Union mission to send hundreds of troops to Congo when the African nation holds a series of landmark elections starting in June, the German Defense Minister said Monday.

After weeks of hesitation, Germany's Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung said his country planned to lead an EU mission of up to 1,500 members, including troops from France, Spain, Poland and several other nations to support to United Nations peacekeepers stabilizing the country.

Upperdate: The EU commitment--so far only to a "concept"--is very limited indeed.

The Council approved today the concept for a possible EU support to the United Nations' mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) during the electoral process and decided to start military planning and preparation on that basis. Planning for police support will also be pursued...

The EU operation will aim to provide timely and focused support to MONUC. The concept foresees notably:
* the deployment of an advanced element to Kinshasa of circa 400-450 military personnel;
* the availability of a battalion-size "on-call" force "over the horizon" outside the country, but quickly deployable...

"We have together agreed that the command headquarters in Potsdam will take overall responsibility for the mission," Jung told Germany's Hessiche Rundfunk radio. "One can really talk of a European mission here."

However, Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Berlin was still waiting to get more commitments from other EU nations before giving the final go-ahead. He said the issue would come up at the EU summit in Brussels Thursday and Friday...

The U.N. has most of its 16,000 peacekeepers in Congo's unruly east and is seeking European troops to deter unrest in the capital during the elections and provide rapid backup to its blue-helmet soldiers if they run into trouble.

EU governments had been wary about committing soldiers, largely because of concerns that their forces could get dragged into a renewed civil war if the elections go badly. EU governments are expected to impose a four-month time-limit on their deployment...

Posted by markc at March 21, 2006 01:32 PM | TrackBack