By Sarah Collins - 5th February 2008
EU ambassadors meeting in Brussels on Tuesday said that there will be ‘no big delays’ on the deployment of European forces to Chad.
According to a spokesperson for the Slovenian presidency, EU ambassadors meeting in the political and security committee said that although the mission (EUFOR) will remain suspended, there is a “strong hope that it will continue shortly”.
Although “the situation on the ground is still unclear”, it is “slowly improving”, the council spokesperson said.
Glennys Kinnock, chair of the parliament's delegation to the ACP-EU joint parliamentary assembly, said she was concerned for Darfuri refugees in the region if there were any delay to the mission.
“The situation in Chad is of deep concern and threatens tragic repercussions. Not least because we know that any delay to the deployment of the French-dominated 3700-strong EU peacekeeping force will leave the estimated 200,000 Darfuri refugees living in the region vulnerable and without the protection that they so desperately need.”
EUFOR was agreed by European ministers on 28 January as a 12-month "bridging" operation until UN forces take up their mandate in 2009.
It will include around 3700 troops from 14 member states in the field, making it the most multinational military operation by the EU in Africa so far.
But EPP-ED deputy and vice chair of parliament’s foreign affairs committee Geoffrey Van Orden has called the mission a “misguided deployment”, supporting instead an immediate global response through the UN alone.
“It was never clear how a ramshackle force of 3700 soldiers from 14 countries, for which there was little enthusiasm, was going to protect 400,000 refugees spread across 200,000 square miles of arid ground,” he said.
However, Colm Burke, an Irish MEP who called on parliament to pass a resolution on Chad last December, is adamant that Van Orden is wrong.
"Mr Van Orden appears to be misguided, and not the EUFOR TCHAD/RCA mission," he told the Parliament Magazine.
"EUFOR TCHAD/RCA has been sanctioned by the UN and the UN is very appreciative that the EU can help smooth the way in the coming year to further deployment of UN peacekeepers in this area.
"There are 14 participating EU member states in this mission, underlining the European consensus and political will behind this operation. In fact, to use this latest offensive by Chadian rebels in the Chadian capital as a way to undermine EU foreign policy is very unfair, in my opinion."
The mission will cost the EU €119.6m and will have a mandate for the use of armed force "if necessary".
Meanwhile, EU development chief Louis Michel has pledged €2m to provide clean water, food, shelter and medical aid to refugees and displaced people in Chad.
He said on Tuesday: “Conditions are still too chaotic to obtain a full assessment of the situation but what is clear is that many people are already suffering and we need to be geared up to help them as rapidly as possible.”
But although Burke welcomes the commission's pledge, he cautioned, "EU peacekeepers are sorely needed on the ground as soon as possible to help in the safe delivery of such humanitarian aid; otherwise, it could fall into the hands of rebels and bandits, making the European commission's recent financial gesture a futile one."
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.