European Union defence chiefs are optimistic they will be able to find troops needed to respond to a United Nations request to back up its peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR) as the African nation prepares for elections designed to end years of civil strife.
”It will be put together without any doubt,” said Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign and security representative. ”I think a good number of countries will participate.”
He told reporters at a meeting of EU defence ministers on Monday that Germany would likely lead the mission.
EU nations have been struggling since January to muster around 1 200 troops for the operation. Prolonged hesitation risked calling into question the bloc’s ambitions to build a military capability to operate independently of Nato.
Most of the troops will be based outside the DRC in a nearby African nation ready to move in quickly to support the blue helmeted UN soldiers if they get into trouble during the election period, which is due to kick off with a first round presidential
vote in June, Solana said.
British Defence Secretary John Reid was also confident the EU would find the troops. It’s ”not whether we help, but how we help,” he said.
Ministers will be asked on Tuesday to say how they will contribute to the mission, said Austria’s Defence Minister Guenther Platter who was chairing the two-day meeting.
Pressure has been building for Germany to step forward as leader of the operation because it currently has the lead in the EU’s rotating system of ”battlegroups” — quick reaction units designed for deployment in international hot spots.
However, Berlin has been reluctant to commit to taking a leading role and has called on support from other EU nations. ”There is an overall responsibility for Europe,” German Defence Minister Franz-Josef Jung told reporters as he arrived for the talks. ”There must be a fair distribution” of the burden, he added.
The UN request for European troops to bolster the 16 000-strong mission in the the DRC has underscored the EU’s military difficulties. The plan calls for just a few hundred highly mobile troops able to rush to potential trouble spots for a few months as the DRC holds its elections. But while the EU was quick to offer its
support, nations have been wary of offering troops.
Last week, Germany, France, Sweden, Belgium and Portugal suggested they could play a role, but without taking the lead.
Diplomats said the plan would likely include the deployment of 200-450 European soldiers to the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, with up to 800 additional troops would be held on standby outside the DRC for rapid intervention if there is trouble. Other options under debate would include more European soliders inside the country.
Negotiations were under way with thee DRC’s neighbours to host the ”over the horizon” troops ready to move into the country in an emergency, Solana said, although some diplomats said part of the force could be stationed in Europe.
Solana said he was in regular contact with Congolese President Joseph Kabila who backed the EU’s preparations.
Ministers also discussed help for African peacekeepers struggling to contain violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, although there was no sign of support for calls from the US Senate for Nato to send troops.
”The Nato role … I do see in the enabling sphere and not with the boots and troops on the ground,” Nato’s Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters as he arrived for the talks.
Instead, the Europeans were looking at increasing logistical support and training for peacekeepers from the African Union, including a proposal for a full-time cooperation programme to improve the AU’s peacekeeping abilities in Africa.
”Our objective is to initiate a close working partnership between the EU and the African Union in the field of security so that we can improve capabilities in crisis management,” Reid and his French counterpart, Michelle Alliot-Marie, wrote in a joint letter on Monday to two European newspapers.
They stressed that ”ultimately, Africans must take the lead.” – Sapa-AP