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EU plans to send troops to Chad
23/07/2007 10:20 - (SA)
Constant Brand
Brussels - European Union foreign ministers on Monday will consider plans to send up to 3 000 peacekeepers to Chad to protect refugees fleeing from neighbouring Darfur, Sudan.
The 27 ministers would also debate how to find agreement with Russia over the future status of Kosovo and peace efforts in the Middle East at their last meeting before the EU's summer break.
The meeting would also launch technical negotiations between EU nations on completing its new reform treaty, meant to improve the way the 27-nation bloc operates and boost its position on the world stage.
Portuguese foreign minister Luis Amado, whose country held the EU presidency, had said he wanted those negotiations finalised by an October EU summit.
Peacekeeping mission
Monday's talks were expected to give the green light to start planning for a possible 6-to-12-month peacekeeping mission in Chad, to where tens of thousands of refugees from Sudan's western Darfur region had fled, seeking to escape violence and drought.
Diplomats said that several EU nations, led by Germany and including the Netherlands, Estonia and Greece, had expressed reservations at sending troops to Chad.
Diplomats said France, Britain and Sweden were keen to push ahead with planning, which could lead to a final EU decision on sending troops before the end of the year. Preliminary EU plans were to send 1 500 to 3 000 troops to refugee camps on the border with Darfur.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday that they would push for an immediate cease-fire in Darfur to end the four year conflict between African rebels and pro-Sudanese government janjaweed militia.
The fighting there had killed more than 200 000 people and displaced 2.5 million.
Independence of Kosovo
Meanwhile, EU nations would look to end the deadlock over Kosovo's future status after Russia managed to block a Western-backed UN draft resolution in New York on Friday.
The United States and EU members opted to pursue negotiations with Russia and Serbia outside the United Nations in an effort to avert a Russian veto in the UN's security council.
Russia, an ally of Serbia, contended the resolution was a hidden route to the independence of Kosovo, which had been under UN and Nato administration since a 78-day Nato-led air war halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999.
The US and five EU countries that proposed the latest draft referred further discussions on the province to the Contact Group on Kosovo, which included representatives from the US, Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Russia - as well as the affected parties.
A recent meeting of Middle East peace sponsors - the US, Russia, the UN and the EU - would also be assessed to see whether new Mideast envoy Tony Blair could make progress to get peace talks back on track in the region.
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