Darfuris happy with new U.N.-AU force

By Opheera McDoom

ARDAMATA CAMP, Sudan (Reuters) - Dusty Darfuri children dashed after the U.N. and African Union vehicles laughing and copying new Philippino police who gave good-natured peace signs.

"They used to throw stones at us," said one former African Union officers who was on patrol.

The joint peacekeeping force took over from a struggling African Union mission on December 31 and the verdict from thousands of Darfuris is they are doing a good job with more interaction, day and night patrols and a new vigor about their work.

While they are far short of the 26,000 police and troops eventually due to deploy in the world's largest U.N.-funded peacekeeping operation, the change has been received well.

"Before we would see the cars moving but would never meet them (the AU)," said Ardamata camp spokeswoman Mariam Abdullahi Bakhiet. "There is a big difference and they help us out a lot."

She said new night patrols from the U.N. force had stopped militia, locally called Janjaweed, from coming into camps like Ardamata in West Darfur at night and shooting or beating people.

"They (the U.N.-AU patrol) sometimes come at night and they (the Janjaweed) are afraid of them and don't come," she said.

The Philippines have sent 42 new civilian police to the mission who on Wednesday went on their first patrol into the camps. Bangladeshi police have also been deployed.

They received a warning from the officer in charge to ensure they have an exit strategy during patrols as camp residents may mistake them for Chinese engineers, who many reject as they view Beijing as supporting Khartoum's counter-insurgency campaign.

While they looked slightly concerned, they still threw themselves into the task with fervor, waving at everyone they passed in the car and greeting everyone in the dirt streets.

PEACE SIGNS

Instead of the thumbs-up and "okay" which aid workers from the world's largest humanitarian operation taught children in the camps, the Philippinos taught them the "peace" sign.

The AU was viewed with suspicion by many Darfuris as they mediated a 2006 peace deal which most people rejected. That coupled with its inability to stem attacks on civilians pushed frustrated people to burn AU bases in several camps.

But many in the new joint force, called UNAMID, voiced concerns about high expectations Darfuris had that they could protect them. Since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing government of neglect, 2.5 million have been driven from their homes and experts estimate 200,000 have died.

The force's composition is still only at 9,000 strength and is almost entirely the old AU mission with new blue caps. But U.N. systems are being put into place and there is a revived energy around the camps of soldiers under new leadership.