China to Deploy Peacekeeping Troops to Darfur

17 September 2007

China on Saturday demonstrated the readiness of its first military engineering unit set to be deployed in Sudan’s Darfur region to support a United Nations peacekeeping mission, deflecting criticism of its stance towards the conflict there.

This weekend, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) invited foreign journalists to its camp in central Henan Province, where its troops have been trained since June for the peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

The company-size peacekeeping unit consists of 315 engineers, medics, and other personnel selected from the PLA’s Jinan Military Region. They will be equipped with 145 vehicles including bulldozers, grabs, and other construction machineries, as well as small arms for self-defence. As well as the basic military and engineering training, the troops have also received training in English language, local culture, and resistance to heat and thirsty.

The unit will go to Darfur in early October ahead of the expected deployment of 26,000 United Nations and African Union troops and police approved by the U.N. Security Council in July. The deployment of the Chinese troops will initially last for eight months.

Their main responsibility is to build roads and bridges and dig wells to prepare for the deployment of the hybrid international forces for Darfur. A PLA official admitted that in addition to harsh environments and poor living conditions, this mission would be the most dangerous peacekeeping operation ever for Chinese troops.

Dai Shaoan, the Deputy Director-General of the Defence Ministry’s office for peacekeeping, denied that the reason for sending peacekeeping troops is to change the way the West looks at China. Beijing is facing growing pressure from the United States, European Union and human rights groups for turning a blind eye to the ongoing conflict and genocide in the Darfur region, where 450,000 people have died from violence and disease and about 2.5 million have fled their homes.

Beijing won credit this year for persuading Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, to accept a peace plan proposed by the former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan. Now, it wants to show it is also committing troops.

China has already deployed a 435-man military engineering unit in Southern Sudan since April 2006 as a part of the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) to support implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army.