The European Union peacekeeping force that is currently deploying in eastern Chad has taken into doing police work in order to ensure security for humanitarian workers, local populations as well as external refugees, local media reported Friday.
"We are involved in patrols, conducting surveillance, searching for thieves, establishing contact with the local people... which is primarily the work of the police," an officer with a Farchana-based EUFOR battalion was quoted by media as saying recently.
"We have no mandate to search or arrest armed persons. When they see us, the gunmen who have something to ulterior motive run away while those who have a good reason to own a weapon, do not see any problem," said Col. Frederic Garnier, who heads the battalion mainly composed of French troops.
"Our role in the east is essentially deterrent. We are helping to reduce insecurity by just making our presence felt," said the French Special Forces colonel, nevertheless adding that "this was not part of the initial mission."
"The major attacks which used to drive hundreds of thousands of people from their homes have come to an end," said Gen. Jean-Philippe Ganascia, EUFOR field commander, noting the impression was that of using "a hammer and anvil to kill a fly."
"There is gap between the design and the mission," which mostly consists of trying to stop robbery, rape and assault that is inspired by ethnicity for the most part, according to the general.
Since March, the EU peacekeepers are being deployed in eastern Chad to protect 260,000 refugees from the neighboring western Sudanese province of Darfur, where a civil war is still raging.
"EuFOR will not completely resolve the insecurity situation in eastern Chad," said the general who oversees security operations across the vast region several times the size of France.
"But the local security forces had withdrawn from this area. Today, we are helping, supporting... efforts to reverse the trend so that things can once again start moving in the right direction. If this happens, we will not have come here for nothing," said Ganascia.
Source: Xinhua
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