By Lee Berthiaume, Postmedia News, March 19, 2013
OTTAWA — Canada is wellplaced to help bring peace and stability back to Mali, a senior United Nations’ official says — and it doesn’t have to deploy hundreds of soldiers to do it. “There are many different ways that Canada can contribute,” Kieran Dwyer, chief of public affairs at the UN peacekeeping department, told Postmedia News on Monday. “And large numbers of soldiers on the ground aren’t the only effective measure of a contribution.”
See also below: German soldiers piling into Mali.The UN Security Council is expected to approve a peacekeeping mission to Mali in the coming days to replace French soldiers who have been battling Islamic militants in the north of the country since January.
Dwyer said the UN has been soliciting feedback from member states in advance of that decision to see what different countries are willing and able to contribute so the mission can get up and running as quickly as possible. Dwyer, who was in Ottawa to attend an event organized by the United Nations Association of Canada, could not say whether Canada has been approached yet, but the Harper government has insisted Canada won’t undertake any direct military mission.
Instead, the government has said it is contemplating further aid and development contributions to help Mali get back on its feet.
Dwyer said Canada has a proud history of peacekeeping, and the UN is hoping it will increase its role in such operations in light of increasing demand.
“But keeping in mind there is a very serious humanitarian crisis there (in Mali) as well, it’s not only blue-helmeted peacekeepers (that are needed),” he said.
“There are a lot of roles for humanitarian work for civilians as well as police and military.”
Dwyer noted Canada’s decades of engagement with Mali, this country’s bilingual nature and its history of contributing to global peace and security.
“All those things put Canada in a very strong position to play a role,” he said. “Again, defining what that role might best be is something that Canada and the UN would need to talk about.”
Canada’s main contribution to Mali has been making a C-17 military heavy-transport plane available to France since mid-January to help move troops and equipment into the country to fight the Islamist militants.
Canada has also committed $13-million in humanitarian aid, which is in addition to about $70-million in ongoing, long-term aid, and it is helping train Niger armed forces while Canadian police officers are working with counterparts in the region.
Yet it has refused to provide financial support for the Africa-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA), the UN-sanctioned mission to prevent the Islamists from turning northern Mali into a base of operations.
Canada has also stayed out of a mission organized by the European Union to train Malian forces.
Meanwhile, Canada’s role as a peacekeeping nation has been in steady decline for more than a decade. Canada ranked 56th out of 114 countries in terms of contributions to peacekeeping operations at the end of January. It had 99 police officers, 20 civilians and 11 soldiers deployed on missions around the world.
Dwyer said the UN would like to see Canada do more, even if it’s simply supporting current operations with more advanced technology or other contributions.
German defence minister in Mali, to visit troops
Arab Times, March 19, 2013
BAMAKO, March 18, (Agencies)–German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere arrived in Mali on Monday where he is to meet German soldiers deployed to support French and African troops fighting Islamist rebels.
After first visiting German forces stationed in neighbouring Senegal, De Maiziere headed to the Malian capital Bamako, where he is due to meet, among others, French General Francois Lecointre, commander of the European Union mission to train more than 2,500 Malian soldiers. De Maiziere told journalists in Senegal, where Germany provides logistical and plane refuelling support to French forces, that it was “in Europe’s interest that terrorism doesn’t spread in Mali”.
Germany has approved the deployment of up to 330 soldiers to Mali to participate in an EU-led training mission and give logistical support to French troops. Up to 180 German soldiers have been earmarked for the European Union Training Mission — 100 of them to provide logistical and administrative support in areas such as water and energy supplies.
Additionally, 150 German soldiers are to provide logistical backup to the French deployment in Mali via help with transport and the refuelling of planes.
Concern expressed in Nigeria
Meanwhile, Islamic extremists continue to move freely between Nigeria and northern Mali, despite the ongoing French military operation there against them, the United States ambassador to Nigeria has said. [Nigeria lies south of Mali, separated from it by Niger and Burkina Faso.–ed.]
As extremist shootings, bombings and kidnappings of foreigners continue unstopped across northern Nigeria, US Ambassador Terence McCulley said halting the violence remained a top priority of the Washington government. However, McCulley declined to answer questions about US plans to operate a drone base in neighboring Niger – which would allow the aircraft to monitor Nigeria as well.
Officials “have seen reports for years” about fighters from the radical Islamic extremist network Boko Haram traveling to Mali to receive training there, said McCulley, speaking to journalists on a telephone conference call. Boko Haram, the main force behind the continuing guerrilla attacks against Nigeria’s weak central government, is believed by analysts and officials to have ties to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates in Mali, and likely received training and weapons from them.
“The Nigerians feel that there is a link between extremist activity in the Sahel and their internal extremist insurgency,” McCulley said. The ambassador said Nigeria needed to attack the group on multiple fronts, both militarily and by alleviating northern Nigeria’s crushing poverty and lack of opportunities for its growing, young population.
McCulley also said Nigeria needed to “respect human rights” in fighting extremists. Human rights officials long have accused Nigeria’s security forces of illegally detaining people for months without charges, using torture and even summarily killing suspects.
French troops, with the help of Malian soldiers, have been fighting Islamic extremists who took over the main towns in northern Mali in the weeks after a coup toppled the nation’s government last year. Despite their efforts, it appears extremists continue to be able to simply disappear into local populations and move freely across the region, where desert borders remain loosely patrolled.
In part to stop that flow, US President Barack Obama announced plans in February to establish a military base in neighboring Niger to stage drone flights across the Sahel region. While US plans initially call for the drones to be used to gather information about Islamic extremists in Mali, the drones could be used elsewhere in the region. In Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north, there has been growing concern and suspicion about the US intentions in the region, despite the ongoing violence.
When asked about the drones, McCulley largely declined to comment, though he said Nigeria’s government has not posed any questions to the US regarding the drone program.
