Hope Lives: African Union Ready To Send 4-5,000 Troops Within Days

[NATO AIR]

(or weeks, depends on how fast they can get logistics support)

let's go guys!

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040922/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_sudan_1

African Union Ready to Send GIs to Darfur

Wed Sep 22, 6:52 PM ET

By GERALD NADLER, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS - A top African Union official said Wednesday the 53-nation group is ready to move thousands of troops to Sudan's western region of Darfur within days if it gets logistical support from Western nations and the United Nations (news - web sites) "especially."

The United Nations has called Darfur the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and the Security Council has called for the African Union to vastly increase the number of troops it has there, currently about 300, to try to prevent attacks by Arab militias against black Africans.

Over 1.2 million people have fled their homes to escape the violence and more than 50,000 have died at the hands of the militias that the United States says are sponsored and armed by Sudan's government. Sudan denies any involvement.

The council has threatened Sudan with possible oil sanctions if it doesn't stop the violence.

The African Union is ready to send 4,000 to 5,000 troops "very soon — within days, weeks," African Union Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare told The Associated Press.

But Konare said movement depends on logistical help from "Europe, America and the United Nations especially."

So far, he said, there has been just talk about assistance.

"Sometimes people speak big, but when it is time to give big, they are not willing," Konare said.

He said Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania are ready to contribute troops, "but we don't have the means" to move and equip them.

A Security Council resolution passed Saturday strongly endorsed the deployment of a beefed-up African Union force with an expanded monitoring mission that would actively try to prevent attacks and mediate to stop the conflict from escalating.

It also authorizes Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) to rapidly appoint an international commission to investigate reports of human rights violations in Darfur and determine "whether or not acts of genocide have occurred."

Annan called last week for immediate U.N. action to halt attacks against civilians in western Darfur, which he said were continuing despite the government's promise to rein in the marauding militias.

Sudan's government and government-allied Arab militia are accused by the United Nations, United States and others of waging a campaign of killing, torture, rape and arson to drive out Darfur's non-Arab farmers.

The United States and some aid groups say genocide has already been committed in Darfur, a charge the government denies. The violence broke out with the emergence of two rebel groups after February 2003.

Konare was a keynote speaker at a luncheon hosted by Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and the U.N. Development Program for representatives of the so-called Group of Eight major industrialized nations. The other members are Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, Russia and Canada.

The speeches focused on increasing aid to the world's poorest countries.

Powell said that President Bush (news - web sites)'s pledge to increase development assistance by 50 percent by 2006 was met three years early — in 2003.

"And we are ready to do even more," he said.

 

[CSM]

Doesn't Nigeria have it's own problems? Just asking.

Hundreds of millions to move 5000 men and guess who they are waiting for to fork over the bucks. The great satan of course. Maybe they should ask the EU for a few eurodollars. I'm sure France is ready to dive in and help.

 

[NATO AIR]

yea, Nigeria has got some serious issues. Whether or not they're exactly working them out is debateable. Their military is second only to S. Africa though, and they have been more than willing to send troops to trouble spots in the area in the past 10 years.

I like how the AU is putting the screws to the UN to pay for this (Japan, EU, Canada, etc) and just mentioning America rather than singling it out. Good thinking on their part, knowing the UN will hand the problem over to a coalition of the willing but still do a major donor push.

 

[CSM]

yea, Nigeria has got some serious issues. Whether or not they're exactly working them out is debateable. Their military is second only to S. Africa though, and they have been more than willing to send troops to trouble spots in the area in the past 10 years.

I like how the AU is putting the screws to the UN to pay for this (Japan, EU, Canada, etc) and just mentioning America rather than singling it out. Good thinking on their part, knowing the UN will hand the problem over to a coalition of the willing but still do a major donor push.

Handing it over to the UN is the reason no troops are moving on the ground. No one except Canada has offered any cash.

 

[NATO AIR]

they're embarassing the UN(do they have any shame left?) into unoffically blessing a coalition of the willing alliance with washington, london and sydney.

 

[Said1]

No one except Canada has offered any cash.

20 million.