NATO set to make African debut

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

BRUSSELS: Barring a last-minute hitch, NATO is set to make its debut in Africa by backing up an African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region — although it is keen to be discreet..

NATO head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who is to take part in a Darfur donors’ conference in Addis Ababa this week, said recently he was “confident” that the military alliance’s member states would take up an AU request for help. But it is keen to stress that the African body will be in charge of the mission. “NATO agrees this must remain and be seen to remain an AU mission with NATO intervening only in a support role,” said a NATO official, who declined to be named. The AU so far has a 2,200-strong peacekeeping force, but this could rise to more than 7,700 by September, and perhaps 12,000 later on. Its deployment has been slowed by logistical problems and lack of enough air transport.

To help speed things up, the AU has asked both NATO and the European Union specifically for logistical support including troop transport and lodging, as well as training, communications equipment and other material.

But Sudan’s Foreign Minister Moustafa Osmane Ismail said NATO could only provide support to the AU on condition that there were “no troops other than Africans” on Darfur soil.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_23-5-2005_pg4_4

[applegrove]

1. Finally. A little light. NATO should go in though.. if the cleansing

continues..they will just have to up the anti.