U.N. To Euros: More Troops, Please

[David]

AP


European Union nations must contribute more soldiers to United Nations peacekeeping and more money to promoting stability in Sudan, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday.

Annan, speaking to Dublin's Forum on Europe at the start of a weeklong visit to Ireland and Britain, said he wanted the 25-nation EU to build a military capability that would be put at the disposal of U.N. peacekeeping operations.

"The EU and its member states pay a lot of the U.N.'s bills and support our work right across the spectrum. I am deeply grateful for that ? but I look to Europe for even more," Annan said in the gold-gilded St. Patrick's Hall of Dublin Castle, a government conference venue.

Annan noted that 56,000 troops in U.N. uniform were deployed worldwide ? but just 10 percent of them were from Europe. He said U.N. deployments "desperately need" another 30,000 soldiers.

"I want to leave you in no doubt of how important strengthened EU capacities are to the United Nations," Annan said. "The EU is in a position to provide specialized skills that our largest troop contributors may not be able to give us, and to deploy more rapidly than we can."

Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern, who spoke alongside Annan, said militarily neutral states such as Ireland wanted to see the United Nations' authority respected and strengthened. He offered indirect criticism of the U.S.-British invasion of Iraq.

"We in Ireland do not believe that the challenges facing the international community can be satisfactorily resolved through unilateral action by any one country, or group of countries, no matter how large their resources or how resolute their determination to go it alone," Ahern said.

Annan didn't directly mention Iraq but noted: "Anyone who believes in collective responses to our common problems must be disturbed at the course of events in the past few years."

Annan thanked EU states for providing financial aid to the African Union, which is spearheading efforts to stop ethnic bloodshed in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

"But let me be very frank: Much more help is needed," he said. "Darfur is an enormous region and a huge number of people are suffering. The humanitarian effort needs more money. And the (African Union) needs concrete support ? including logistics, equipment and financing, as well as political pressure on the parties. Every country and organization that can help must do so, now."

In May, EU defense ministers unveiled a six-year plan to develop 1,500-soldier "battle groups" for rapid deployment to global hot spots. The move, promoted by Britain, France and Germany, has been officially welcomed by the NATO alliance, which last year formed its own 20,000-strong rapid response force.

Annan said he believed elite EU-organized military units could be ideal for U.N. purposes. He cited as an example France's speedy deployment of 1,700 soldiers to northeastern Congo in June 2003 at the height of ethnic unrest there. That three-month mission saved many lives and was "a model of EU cooperation with the U.N.," Annan said.

But Ahern criticized the militaristic language of the EU's plans.

"I do feel that the phrase 'battle groups' is unfortunate and one would have thought a less threatening, more appropriate term could have been used," he said.

Counting police and soldiers together, the U.N. has 62,000 peacekeepers deployed. Roughly 5,000 ? or 8 percent ? are from Europe.

Poland is the biggest European contributor, with 741 people, ranking 19th overall. Estonia is the smallest, with two.

Pakistan is the biggest contributor, with close to 9,000 troops. Bangladesh, Nigeria and Ethiopia are the other top providers.

The U.S. ranks 29th with 233 troops.

[Jerry D]

David: Thanks for the heads up on the UN's wanting more europeans to die for Africa but, Not for Iraq . As for US Troops those are Just the 233 troops the US authorizes to wear the Blue UN Beret and patch! When we deploy our US Troops we retain control of them and they follow US policy not Kofi Annan policies