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UN 'needs' more helicopters
09/10/2007 11:25 - (SA)
New York - United Nations officials said on Monday that they still lacked helicopters and ground transport vehicles that could be critical to the success of the 26 000-strong joint UN-African Union force expected to begin deploying to Darfur later this year.
Jean-Marie Guehenno, the UN undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, said the force had not yet received pledges from contributing countries for 24 military transport helicopters, as well as a number of long-haul ground transportation vehicles.
Jane Holl Lute, assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, said the deployment would not be delayed or halted after a certain point because of the lack of transport units.
But she said it could "significantly impair" the ability of the force to operate once it reached Darfur.
200 000 people killed
Guehenno said: "If you want to ensure the protection of civilians, you need that mobility, you need the capacity to transport troops quickly to a place you hear there is some trouble developing and you need to have the firepower and the strength to immediately dominate the situation."
The joint UN-AU force was meant to replace a beleaguered 7 000-member African Union force that had been unable to stop the bloodshed in Darfur, a vast western Sudanese region, where more than 200 000 people have died in four years of fighting.
Sudan agreed to the deployment of the joint force after months of international pressure and painstaking negotiations, which ended with a pledge that the force would be predominantly African.
A vast majority of the troops committed to the force thus far were from African countries. However, there had been a concern about whether African countries alone would be able to meet the UN technical standards for the mission, including providing specialised aviation and ground transport units.
Lute said UN officials were still negotiating with a few select troop-contributing countries that had such units and indicated they might reconsider taking part in the mission. She did not identify which countries they were, nor if they would be acceptable to the Sudanese government.
- AP
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