Norway and Sweden confirm participation in Darfur

sunb!

sunb!

Forum Barbecuer
Source: Norwaypost

Norway and Sweden have confirmed that they will contribute a joint engineer force to the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) in Sudan for a period of up to 12 months.

The aim for the joint Norwegian-Swedish effort is to have the the force in place by the end of 2007.

The force will consist of about 26 000 personnel, of which about 19 500 will be military. UNAMID will thus be the UN’s largest peace operation. The force’s main task will be to protect civilians and support the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement.

In a joint statement, the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre say that Norway and Sweden consider it important to assist the UN in its efforts to create peace in Darfur, and that it is crucial that progress is made in the political talks between the parties to the conflict.

Together with the AU, the UN is now making preparations for a joint mission to support the international community’s efforts to resolve the crisis in Darfur.

At the same time peace negotiations are being conducted, led by Salim Ahmed Salim (for the AU) and former Swedish Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson (for the UN).
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I predict a few force protection missions will be sent that way as well.

The force is not big enough for that area.

//KJ.
 
It'll be stressful for the military as I'm sure for the politicians it will be mostly for "look, see? We did something!"
Good luck to you if you get deployed.
Though I was never shot at, I know a few things about being badly understaffed.
 
Under the terms laid down by the UN it would be better to stay out of the area until such times of the rules of engagement high been tighten up. The troops that are sent to to Darfur will not be allowed to disarm any one or interfere in any unless they are being attacked. So if these bandits start shooting at the the refugees there is very little this force can do except stand and watch.
 
this is good news... Europe must do more now and this is better than doing nothing and let those poor guy get slaughtered...
 
Unless the Force that is sent there is allowed to act then there is little point in going, it just gives some of the factions more targets
 
Swedish troops have been tasked with hard missions with impossible ROE,s since Vares.

"You did it then.."

Thing is, in Vares the Swedes wrote their own ROE,s when they discovered that the lengthy chain of command made it impossible to engage in a timely manner.

The commander of NORDBAT 2 Colonel Ulf "tuffe Uffe" Henricsson issued an order that said.
"We fiered our warning shot last thursday. When we fire, we fire for effect gentlemen."

Under this new set of ROE,s issued by a commander willing to put it all on the line for his troops the Swedish battalion that arrived a day to late to save the small village of Stupni do did in fact turn up in time to save the city of Vares from meeting the same fate..


This force(Darfur) does have a chance of succeeding, as long as the respective HQ,s choose the right commanders for the job.
With that I mean: Choose commanders who know how to employ SF units for force protection missions, intel gathering and to create repore with the local factions and win their trust.(hearts and minds)..

I may be biased, but I predict the Special Forces part that goes on out of sight to reporters and civilians will be key to this operation.

The ones who live will see, right?

//KJ.
 
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