Why Ireland is leading the way with Chadian peace mission

SENDING in troops to protect refugees and aid agencies at the very heart of a humanitarian crisis may seem like an obvious move, but for Ireland and Europe it has been a very controversial one.

Bertie Ahern gave French President Nicholas Sarkozy a valuable commitment when he called for a pre-match lunch to the Elysee Palace in Paris last September.

The French wanted to send a peacekeeping mission to Chad and got UN backing, but as the old colonial power in the country, and already having a force supporting the embattled president, they needed some other country to lead peacekeepers. Bertie said yes, and Lt General Pat Nash found himself in an office in Paris as operation commander planning the biggest EU mission with a starting budget of almost €120 million — expected to rise to €500 million for the year — and a force of 3,700 from 22 states. The majority are French but Ireland has the second highest force with 450 people.

Chad’s civil war has been continuing since the French left in 1960, and for the past three years has become entwined with the war in the neighbouring Darfur region of Sudan.

Both are deeply tribal countries and many of the tribes are common to the two countries. Chadian President Idriss Deby is a member of one of the smallest tribes in Chad, with most of its people in Sudan.

He holds power, having changed the constitution to allow him to remain on, by making alliances and creating strife with the various tribes. He has been responsible for attacks, including murder, rape and extortion against civilians he suspects have helped some of the rebel groups trying to overthrow him. His government has been responsible for human rights abuses and continue to recruit child soldiers.

The war in Sudan is complicated further by the war between the Arab-dominated government and African tribes in Darfur. The Sudanese government provides a safe haven and support to armed groups, including the Janjaweed who have attacked Chadian border villages and rebel groups. The Janjaweed are also suspected of being behind the attack on the capital N’Djemina in February that almost succeeded in deposing Mr Deby.

Apart from the murders, the mayhem has resulted in half a million people fleeing the fighting — most inside Darfur, but with 230,000 crossing the border into Chad, while 180,000 Chadians have been displaced in their own country.

Horror at the atrocities in Darfur eventually galvanised the UN and convinced the members of the Security Council to take action. A combined African Union-United Nations force was deployed inside Darfur and a small mission of 350 police and military liaison personnel under UN control will operate in Chad and the Central African Republic, which has also been affected.

But the most important peacekeeping operation is the European Union Force (EUFor), tasked with taking all necessary measures within its capabilities and its area of operation in eastern Chad and the north-eastern Central African Republic to protect civilians, facilitate delivery of humanitarian aid, and ensure the safety of UN personnel.

“All necessary measures” is widely interpreted as including engaging armed groups directly — possibly the most robust mandate ever handed to the Irish troops taking part in a peace keeping operation.

They had reason to use this mandate over the past week as rebels emerged from around the Sudan border just 70km away and attacked the regional capital of Goz Beida. The town is little more than a collection of circular straw huts, and the governor’s house and office and the compound of the UN are built of locally-made red brick; the old French customs office and a very big new mosque still to be officially opened.

The rebels were expected by the Chadian army who engaged the men on the back of trucks with machine guns in battle, watched from a distance by the Irish soldiers, wary that their next move might be against the refugee camps in the area.

The full story has yet to emerge, but it appears they put themselves between the rebels and the camps and fired shots over their heads as a warning. The rebels appeared to have retreated.

Earlier they had to respond to an urgent call from the UN compound where they were being threatened by rebels, and after a stand-off for some time the rebels left.

They are on high-alert still as the rebels, having abandoned their march towards the capital, are making their way back towards the Sudan border.

There is also the danger that many of the rebels will simply melt back into the refugee camps to sit out the rainy season, but will militarise these camps in the meantime.

The EU, which is continuing its programme of development assistance at a cost of €300 million this year to Chad, believes that the intervention in the country at this time could be a vital step in stabilising the region.

It is difficult to know where to start in a region where world powers like China, Russia, the US and others are involved for their own interests, and where tribal allegiances dominate the local level.

But a few thousand heavily armed troops in strategic positions along the border between the two countries are threatening to destabilise the whole of central Africa.

This could reduce the room for manoeuvre between the warring tribes and their sponsors, which the EU and the UN had hoped would create a space for peace to take hold.