Darfur Peacekeepers' Rotation Begins

From Rwanda's "New Times", reprinted on allAfrica...

Two Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) battalions of peacekeepers will be airlifted to the conflict-torn Darfur region of Sudan this morning [Tuesday] as replacements for their compatriots who have served out their mandate.

Army spokesman Maj. Jill Rutaremara yesterday [Monday] confirmed the rotation, and said that the two battalions that will be airlifted to Darfur are battalions 61 and 14. Each battalion is composed of about 540 peacekeepers. "The two battalions will be replacing [battalions] 35 and 25, which have ended their mandate. The rotation will go on until November 30," Rutaremara said. He however added [that] the battalions will be under the auspices of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), He however said that the modalities of upgrading the forces into the [joint] UN-AU hybrid force will come at a later stage.

The new troops are expected to be deployed in Sector One, El-Fasher. Rwanda already has over 2,000 troops in Sudan under the auspices of the African Union, which are deployed in sectors one, four, and seven, where about 200,000 people have died and another 2.5 million [have been] left homeless since 2003.

The RDF peacekeeping forces are part of the 7000-strong AU peacekeeping force in the war-ravaged region, where most of them may be maintained to form the UN-AU hybrid force by January 1, 2008. Meanwhile, Reuters adds that armed raiders who killed 10 African Union soldiers in an attack on their base used vehicles marked with the letters JEM - the name of a powerful Darfur rebel group, the UN reported yesterday. JEM, or the Justice and Equality Movement, denied any involvement in the attack on the AU base in the eastern Darfur town of Haskanita when it happened in late September. JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim repeated the denial yesterday, saying: "It was not JEM who attacked the base, and we can prove it."

He blamed commanders behind a breakaway faction from his group. "They still call themselves JEM, and used vehicles marked with JEM. They carried out the attack [in order] to make a name for themselves."

The attack was the worst single assault on AU peacekeepers in Darfur, and came just weeks before planned peace talks between insurgent groups and Sudan's government. At the time, diplomats said, the most-likely culprits were splinter groups of JEM and the Sudan Liberation Army's Unity (SLA-Unity) faction that may have attacked without the go-ahead of their central command.

The new details came in a monthly report on Darfur by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that was distributed to journalists in Khartoum yesterday. The report stated: "Preliminary results of an investigation initiated by the AMIS (African Union Mission in Sudan) [force] ... suggest that the attack was conducted by rebels entering the camp in vehicles bearing the inscription "JEM".

"The motive of the attack appears to have been looting of AMIS logistical equipment." The under-equipped African force of around 7,000 troops from 26 countries patrolling Darfur, a region the size of France, is due to be replaced next year by a "hybrid", 26,000-strong AU-UN force.