OIL-RICH DARFUR NEWS: Security Council Approves Deployment of EU Troops, U.N. Police to Darfur Neighbors

OIL-RICH DARFUR NEWS:

Security Council Approves Deployment of EU Troops, U.N. Police to Darfur Neighbors

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer

Aug 28, 2007, 1:50 AM EDT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) --

The Security Council gave the European Union and the U.N. the green light Monday to prepare for a military and police deployment to help protect civilians in Chad and the Central African Republic caught in the spillover of the Darfur conflict.

A council statement expressed readiness to authorize an international operation for a year to protect refugees, internally displaced people and civilians at risk in eastern Chad and the northeastern Central African Republic, and to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The EU would send troops and the United Nations would contribute police, though France and the U.S. have said the year-long deployment will likely be followed by a U.N. peacekeeping operation. An EU Council of Ministers meeting on Sept. 17 will make a final decision on deploying European Union troops.

The council's statement sends an important "message of concern for the seriousness of the humanitarian situation in Chad and the Central African Republic," said France's deputy U.N. Ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

Darfur's spillover into the northeast Central African Republic and eastern Chad "has had very serious humanitarian consequences - more refugees, more displaced persons, and more insecurity for these refugees and displaced persons," he said.

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, whose country drafted the Security Council statement, said last week that there were 400,000 refugees and internally displaced people in Chad, and more than 200,000 displaced people in the northern Central African Republic.

Since the Security Council visited Darfur and Chad in June 2006, the U.N. has been discussing deploying international police and troops to the two impoverished countries.

Chadian President Idriss Deby opposed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's original proposal for the deployment of a U.N. military force, but agreed to an EU force after meeting with France's foreign minister in June.

The EU agreed last month to start planning for a possible 3,000-member peacekeeping mission.

Lacroix said the council statement sends a "political signal" of support, especially to the EU, to go ahead with planning for the deployment.

An EU-U.N. mission is visiting both countries, and he said the council's backing will be important for their recommendations to the EU Council of Ministers meeting.

France (which formerly colonized both countries) plans to follow up very soon with a resolution authorizing the EU force and the U.N. police mission and would like it adopted "as quickly as possible," Lacroix said.

Under a proposal from Ban, the U.N. would send up to 300 international police. He recommended that the Security Council "signal its intention to authorize" the proposed mission, which would allow for intensified coordination between the EU, U.N. and Chad.

Ripert said troops and police would be deployed at a dozen camps in Chad and at least one in northeastern Central African Republic.

The Security Council has authorized the deployment of a 26,000-member U.N.-African Union force to Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died since ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government in 2003.

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Background:

The Sudanese region of Darfur is rich in oil and uranium.

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