Old problems haunt new U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur
Rollout of the U.N.-African Union force has been slow, and equipment is lacking. But expectations remain high.
ABOVE SILEIA, SUDAN — A Russian-made Mi-8 chopper hovers over the scorched remains of this Darfur village, half-deserted since a government air raid destroyed scores of homes.
U.N. military engineers peer through portholes, armed with maps and survey tools they will use to scope out a new peacekeeping camp to be built in the desert below.
Plans to put a 600-soldier base in the heart of Darfur's latest trouble spot are part of the aggressive new strategy of the recently deployed United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission. Sileia jumped to the top of the list of proposed new camps after more than 100 people died in clashes in the area in February.
But the white U.N. helicopter never lands. Someone forgot to dispatch a security patrol on the ground to protect the advance team. So engineers make do with quick sketches during a brief flyover.
"I don't even want to get into whose fault this is," said a fuming Col. Murdo Urquhart, the British army officer in charge of new camps.
Four months after it took over from the beleaguered African Union force in western Sudan, the joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur is a tale of good intentions and loftier ambitions, mixed with some of the same issues that dogged its predecessor. Among the problems are the slow deployment of troops, a lack of adequate equipment and a shabby network of military bases.
It's being called the most formidable U.N. peacekeeping mission ever attempted. Not only will it be the largest when fully deployed at 26,000 troops, but there's also an awkward power-sharing arrangement with the African Union.
Usually, U.N. peacekeepers are sent to failed states or countries with weak governments to enforce peace treaties in a post-conflict environment. But in Sudan, there's a strong government that consented to the U.N. mission as a result of intense international pressure. There's no viable peace agreement here. And the fighting, though it had cooled, may be heating up again.
Despite the challenges, expectations are high. Many of the more than 2.5 million displaced Darfurians hope stability will return so they can go home. And the international community is betting big that a robust presence will end the seemingly intractable conflict..
Most estimates of the death toll since 2003 range from 200,000 to 300,000.
