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Bush Calls For More Muscle In Darfur
President Bush greets supporters in Tampa. "I'm in the process now of working . . . to encourage" more troops in Darfur, he said after a speech.
(By Pablo Martinez Monsivais -- Associated Press)
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The State Department official said there appears to be broad consensus at the United Nations to provide the force much broader rules of engagement. But he said that there are still many difficult issues to address, making it unlikely to win U.N. Security Council authorization by the end of the month. The United States holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month.
The council's African members, Tanzania, Congo Republic and Ghana, backed by China and Qatar, do not want to discuss a U.N. peacekeeping mission until the African Union has formally indicated that it wants the United Nations to step in. That is expected to happen early next month.
NATO has been providing airlift transport for the African peacekeepers, and there are discussions about enhancing that support during the transition to a U.N. mission, according to a British diplomat. Even if the council decides over the next month to approve a U.N. takeover, it could be several months before the mission would be in place.
The Sudanese have not agreed to allow a U.N. peacekeeping mission into Darfur. A new, more effective force "will require a high degree of mobility in particular -- both in the air and on the ground," said Marie Okabe, a spokeswoman for Annan. "The United Nations plans to look to those countries that have the capacity to help us put on the ground a mobile, robust and effective force in Darfur."
The U.S. European Command (Eucom) announced this week in Stuttgart, Germany, that U.S. airmen from Ramstein Air Base have begun helping with the logistics of moving 1,200 troops belonging to two Rwandan battalions from Kigali, Rwanda, to the Darfur region. Contracted aircraft started bringing the troops to the region last Saturday as part of a rotation scheduled to last about three weeks. Capt. Beverly Mock, a Eucom spokeswoman, said she was unaware of any specifics related to increasing U.S. troops in the Darfur region. She said plans are to continue supporting African troops.
The U.S. military supported several missions in the region in 2004 and 2005, using its C-130s and contract aircraft to bring 2,500 Rwandan troops and more than 150,000 pounds of equipment and supplies to Darfur.
Previously, the United States had helped send Nigerian troops and Rwandan civilian police officers to Darfur, along with providing about $190 million to build and operate 34 camps to house, train and equip African troops, according to the Pentagon. A U.N. or NATO mission supported by the United States would probably include more airlift capabilities, planners and logistics specialists, as well as leadership contingents, according to military officials. It was unclear how many U.S. ground troops, if any, would be included in such an effort.
Lynch reported from New York. Staff writers Josh White and Glenn Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.
