Chad badly needs EU peace force

I WAS delighted to visit Ireland last week in my capacity as the 2007 EU peace prizewinner.

Together with MEP Eoin Ryan I met with President Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, key ministers and leading Irish NGOs for discussions about the future of the Darfur region of Sudan.

I urged the Taoiseach to raise the plight of the people of Darfur when he addresses the joint Houses of Congress in Washington later this year.

I support the EU peacekeeping mission to Chad. It is politically neutral and its key objective is to help in the humanitarian situation in the east of the country.

I estimate there are as many as 500,000 people in refugee camps in Chad, many of whom have fled there from the barbarity in Darfur.

People should not underestimate the importance of this peacekeeping mission and I am delighted it is being headed by an Irishman, Gen Pat Nash.

Ireland has a proud record of service on UN missions in many African countries, including the Congo, Liberia and Angola. African people admire the record of Irish peacekeepers who have served on UN peackeeping missions for the past 50 years. The EU mission to Chad is not a simple exercise. But the people in the refugee camps desperately need it.

The protection of the people in the camps in eastern Chad and a guarantee of food and water supplies for them must be of paramount importance. Those in the camps are there due to no fault of their own.

I welcome the comments of former president Mary Robinson when she said, after a visit to Chad, that this EU peacekeeping mission must go ahead.

I am heartened by the solidarity shown by the people of Ireland for the suffering of the people of Darfur.

I have visited France and Ireland since I was given the EU Peace Prize by the European Parliament last December.

I intend to meet with the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the plight of the people of Darfur in the coming weeks.

Salih Osman

Wadmadmi

Sudan