U.N.,EU failing to protect civilians in Chad -Oxfam
By Ingrid Melander
BRUSSELS, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The United Nations and the European Union have failed to protect civilians from violence in eastern Chad and should urgently strengthen policing operations there, international charity Oxfam said on Tuesday.
The U.N. Security Council decided in September last year to deploy an EU peacekeeping force in eastern Chad and Central African Republic, as well as a U.N. mission known as MINURCAT to train and support Chadian police to guard U.N.-run refugee camps.
Since early this year, more than 3,000 European soldiers from over a dozen countries have begun a one-year mission to protect refugees, civilians and aid workers in east Chad from conflict spilling over from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
"One year on, this mission is incapable of effectively protecting civilians in eastern Chad and should be urgently adapted," Oxfam said in a report published on Tuesday.
"Almost half a million vulnerable people who fled their homes due to the conflict in Darfur and Chad are not adequately protected and are exposed daily to attacks, thefts, rape and forced recruitment," Oxfam said.
It made a distinction between the EU military force EUFOR -- which it said had made many feel safer through patrols and camp protection -- and the U.N-trained Chadian police units, which it said had not even been deployed on the ground.
But the aid group said EUFOR was not equipped to fight banditry and crime, which required the intervention of the police units foreseen in the U.N. mandate.
"Only 320 Chadian police have been trained to provide security and they have yet to be deployed," it said.
"Given the dangers facing civilians in eastern Chad, and their right to protection, this is a shameful state of affairs," Oxfam said. "Both the U.N. and the Chadian government share responsibility for the delays," it said.
Oxfam said the U.N. Security Council should decide later this month to immediately deploy the U.N-trained Chadian police together with MINURCAT staff, speed up the training of more Chadian police and send in foreign police units.
The council should also prepare a follow-up mission to EUFOR, whose mandate expires in March 2009, Oxfam said.
Since the EU force's deployment, some military experts and aid workers have questioned whether it has the capacity or strength to protect refugees and relief workers in a rugged operations area of several hundred thousand square km (miles).
A French aid worker was killed by gunmen in May in east Chad just 9 km (six miles) from a French EUFOR base. More than half of the EUFOR contingent are from former colonial power France.
The EU force in Chad suffered its first death in March when two French soldiers strayed across the border into Sudan and one was killed in an exchange of fire with Sudanese soldiers. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/) (Editing by Pascal Fletcher)
