EU Approves 3,000-Strong Africa Force*

By CONSTANT BRAND
The Associated Press
Monday, October 15, 2007; 2:14 PM

LUXEMBOURG -- European Union foreign ministers gave their final approval
Monday to deploy a 3,000-strong EU peacekeeping force for one year to
help refugees and displaced people living along Darfur's borders with
Chad and the Central African Republic.

U.N. officials estimate around 3 million people have been uprooted by
conflicts in the region, including the fighting in Darfur and rebellions
in Chad and the Central African Republic. The majority _ some 2 1/4
million _ are Darfurians displaced within the vast Sudanese desert region.

The EU peacekeeping force would be in addition to a planned
26,000-member joint African Union-U.N. force which is to begin deploying
to Darfur this month to try to quell the violence there.

The EU force could start deploying "in the first few weeks of November,"
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said. EU officials estimate the
cost of the force will be $142 million for one year.

About half of the EU force will be French. Kouchner said the force has
already received pledges of more than 2,500 troops from several EU
nations. Poland and Spain pledged troops and planes at the EU talks
Monday, while Ireland, Sweden, Poland and Belgium are expected to
provide smaller contingents of 80 to 300 troops each, officials said.

Kouchner said the goal of the EU force will be to improve security and
make it easier for aid groups to do their work in the camps that border
Darfur.

"It is a reconstruction mission, a development mission and a
humanitarian one," Kouchner told reporters. "Security needs to be
assured" for the refugees, he said, but added that the mission would not
secure the border areas themselves.

The EU force will also be supported by new EU aid worth some $70
million, which will be used to train a U.N. police force to be
responsible for security inside the refugee camps. The EU force will
maintain security around the camps, officials have said.

France already has troops in the region supporting Chad's government,
leading some aid workers to question whether the force will be seen as
neutral.