Global Policy Forum

The U.N. Security Council gave the European Union and the United Nations a green light Monday to prepare for a new deployment to help protect civilians in Chad and the Central African Republic caught in the spillover of the conflict in Darfur. A council statement giving preliminary approval to the deployment of EU troops and U.N. police was read at a Security Council meeting Monday afternoon by the council president, the Republic of Congo's deputy U.N. ambassador Pascal Gayama.

The statement expresses the council's readiness to authorize an international operation for a year to protect refugees, internally displaced people and civilians at risk in eastern Chad and the northeastern Central African Republic — and to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, whose country drafted the statement, said last week that the year-long deployment of EU troops and U.N. police will probably be followed by a U.N. peacekeeping operation, a view echoed by U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff.

After Monday's council action, France's deputy U.N. ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the statement sends an important "message of concern for the seriousness of the humanitarian situation in Chad and the Central African Republic" and the need for the international community to take action in response. The four-year conflict in Darfur has spilled over into the northeast Central African Republic and eastern Chad resulting in "the very serious deterioration of the stability and security situation in this region," he said.

"This has had very serious humanitarian consequences — more refugees, more displaced persons, and more insecurity for these refugees and displaced persons," Lacroix said. "That is why ... parallel to the effort that is being made by the international community in Darfur, we need to do what is needed to protect those" people. Ripert said last week that there are now 400,000 refugees and internally displaced people in Chad, and more than 200,000 displaced people in the northern Central African Republic.

Since the Security Council visited Darfur and Chad in June 2006, the U.N. has been talking about deploying international police and troops to the two impoverished countries on the volatile border with Darfur. Chadian President Idriss Deby opposed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's original proposal for deployment of a U.N. military force but agreed to an EU force after meeting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in June.

With Deby's approval and the EU's agreement last month to start planning for a possible 3,000-strong peacekeeping mission, the pieces finally appear to be finally falling into place. Lacroix said the council statement sends a "political signal" of support, especially to the EU, to go ahead with planning for the deployment.A joint EU-U.N. mission is currently visiting both countries and he said the council's backing will be important for their recommendations to an EU Council of Ministers meeting on Sept. 17, which will make a final decision on deploying an EU force. France plans to follow up very soon with a resolution authorizing the EU force and the U.N. police mission and would like it adopted "as quickly as possible," Lacroix said.

In a report to the Security Council earlier this month, Ban proposed a U.N.-mandated mission with three main components: an EU military force; a new unit of Chad's police and gendarmerie to maintain law and order in refugee camps, key towns and areas with large numbers of displaced civilians in eastern Chad; and a broad U.N. presence including up to 300 international police, military liaison officers, and experts in human rights, civil affairs and the rule of law. The secretary-general recommended that the Security Council "signal its intention to authorize the establishment" of the proposed international mission, which would enable coordination between the EU, U.N. and Chad to intensify.

France's Ripert said the international operation will help ensure the security of refugees, internally displaced people and civilians, with troops and police deployed at a dozen camps in Chad and at least one in northeastern Central African Republic. Initially, the U.N. had talked of a force protecting the border, but Ripert said it is unrealistic to try to protect a frontier that is several thousand kilometers long and that will not be part of the EU force's mandate.

The Security Council has already authorized deployment of a 26,000-strong joint African Union-United Nations force to help quell the violence in Darfur where more than 200,000 people have died since ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government in 2003, accusing it of discrimination. Sudan is accused of retaliating by unleashing Arab militias, which are blamed for the worst atrocities against civilians in a conflict that has displaced more than 2.5 million people.