France circulated a new Chapter 7 draft resolution at the United Nations calling for a European Union force and U.N. police deployment to Chad and the Central Africa Republic. A Chapter 7 resolution allows the use of military force in order to protect civilians, provide general security, and establish a humanitarian aid corridor. Idriss Deby, the president of Chad, approved of the resolution after meeting with French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, in June. The draft calls for a deployment of a 3,000 strong E.U. peacekeeping force, as well as a 300 police, and 50 military liaison officers. The U.N. contingent would provide international police officers and experts on humanitarian law and the laws of war.
The French ambassador to the U.N., Jean-Maurice Ripert, reported that there were some 400,000 displaced refugees in Chad and more than 200,000 in the Central African Republic. Members of the Security Council had visited the region last year and have been discussing troop deployment to the area since then. The escalation of violence in Chad and the Central African Republic is a result of spill-over from the four-year civil conflict in Darfur, which has resulted in an estimated 200,000 casualties with more than 2.5 million displaced persons.
In related news, al-Qa’ida's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, called on Sudanese rebels to fight African Union and U.N. peacekeeping forces deployed in Darfur. Sudanese President, Omar Hussan al-Bashir, recently accepted a U.N. resolution for the establishment of a 26,000 strong hybrid A.U. and U.N. peacekeeping force in Sudan. Zawahri accused al-Bashir of allying with the United States and abandoning Muslims and called for jihad, stating;
“I address the nation of Muslim mujahadeen in Sudan and remind it that today's is a great test and the free majuhadeen sons of Sudan must organize jihad against the forces invading Darfur as their brothers organized the jihadi resistance in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia”
Sudan hosted al-Qa’ida leader, Usamma bin Laden, in the 1990's. The U.S. has considered Sudan a state sponsor to terrorist groups since 1993.
The conflict in Darfur escalated as ethnic African's accused the predominately Arab government of Sudan of neglect. The government responded by deploying the paramilitary Janjaweed militia against the Africans centered in Darfur.
