Fed: Hill says troop numbers in Africa could increase

AAP General News (Australia)
04-20-2005
Fed: Hill says troop numbers in Africa could increase

CANBERRA, April 20 AAP - The first Australian troops heading for Sudan to aid a UN
mission will depart soon and numbers could eventually increase beyond the planned 15,
Defence Minister Robert Hill said today.

Senator Hill said the Australian contribution to the 10,000-member United Nations Mission
in Sudan (UNMIS) would include logistics and air movement specialists and military observers.

"I am actually expecting the first of them to go within a matter of days rather than
weeks," he said.

"I suspect the UN will be in Sudan for a long time. It's been a civil that has gone
for decades. It is an historical opportunity. The fact that the international community
is responding to support the peace agreement is very important.

"It is likely that we will be requested to stay longer. We may well be requested to
provide different specialised elements during the course of the UN program.

"We could end up with some more but we have always said it would be a small deployment
and it would be people with specialised skills."

Senator Hill said the UN appeared to have no difficulty getting large numbers of infantry
for UN missions.

But it did have problems finding skilled personnel to perform such tasks as managing
undeveloped airports in a safe manner and turned to nations such as Australia, he said.

Senator Hill said the government indicated last year Australia would be willing to
make a modest contribution to the UN force in Sudan. However, the UN only gave the official
go-ahead last month.

Sudan has been the scene of the world's longest-running civil war, which has pitted
the predominantly Muslim north against the Christian and animist south.

In early 2003, the conflict spread to the Darfur region of Sudan's west where pro-government
militias called Janjaweed have killed up to 30,000 people, most of them black Africans,
and driven more than a million from their homes.

Aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian crisis to rival Somalia or Ethiopia of a decade ago.

The UN Security Council authorised the establishment of UNMIS on March 24 under Resolution
1590 after the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement signed the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement to end the 20 year war.

The Australian contribution is intended to assist in the UN mission to facilitate
peace moves to settle the north-south conflict.

However, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said UNMIS would also play a major role
in supporting the African Union's peacekeeping mission (AMIS) in Darfur.

AAP mb/sco/bwl

KEYWORD: SUDAN AUST HILL

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