More Poles for Chad mission
by MARCIN GÓRKA
Friday, December 14, 2007
Reprinted from Gazeta Wyborcza: Więcej Polaków na misji w Czadzie
Not 350 but probably 450 Polish soldiers will go on the mission of European Union to Chad - learned "Gazeta" from MoD.
- French have asked us for two transport helicopters, which are lacking for the mission. We will most likely agree but that means that 100 more soldiers will go to Chad. This is what is needed for efficient service of the helicopters - says our informer.
Our soldiers in Chad will be patrolling their region of responsibility, protecting convoys, assuring safety of UN employees and protecting landing strips; that is, the strategic objects for the entire EU mission. - The Poles are allowed to react only in extreme conditions of violation of human rights and to criminal activity - said yesterday GEN Franciszek Gągor, a chief of General Staff of Polish Armed Forces, at the press conference. - The soldiers will not be securing safety in refugee camps - this is a task for UN police.
Polish forces will be deployed later than planned. A so-called preparatory group, consisting of engineers mostly, will go to Chad in March or April. Its main task is preparation of a base for our soldiers, because whatever they will find there are just a landing strip and main access to water and electricity.
Main Polish forces will move to Chad in May. They will start their tasks in June. This is several months later than it was initially assumed. The reason for the delay is lack of sufficient number of helicopters - without which no movement of military forces is in fact possible. Roads are practically non-existent there. And those sparse ones are non-drivable during rainy season.
Poland is sending the military police from Special Unit in Gliwice and the soldiers from the 11th Armored Cavalry Division from Żagań and the 10th Logistic Brigade from Opole.
GEN Gągor says that this mission will be safer than those in Afghanistan or Iraq. He is more worried about climate and tropical diseases.
