British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday proposed a 15,000-strong EU battle force dedicated to intervening in African conflicts and deployable within 10 days of a political instruction. He said the force should be ready next year.
Blair made the bold proposal just 24 hours after the Iraq Survey Group reported that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq. The talk of battle plans underlined the fact that despite the controversy over Iraq, Blair has not lost his fervor for military interventions.
It formed part of a wider package to tackle crises across Africa, including generous debt and aid proposals designed to take the continent out of its cycle of poverty, disease and instability.
The EU brigade, capable of more rapid deployment than any other multinational force,would intervene with the sanction of the African Union or the UN. The intention is that it would hold the line until an AU or UN force could be assembled.
The force would be formed of battle groups of 1,500 with bigger countries like France, Germany, the UK and Poland supplying their own groups and smaller countries contributing to other groups.
Such rapid action in Sudan might have prevented the massive refugee crisis and killings in Darfur. A 3,000-strong AU force, largely Nigerian, is still weeks from deployment.
Blair was speaking in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the second session of the Commission for Africa, which is preparing a comprehensive plan on how the G8 industrialized countries and the EU can help Africa next year, which Blair has dubbed the year of decision for Africa.
His speech echoed his original call for humanitarian intervention set out in Chicago in 1999. UK officials are seeking to produce an updated version of these Chicago principles to take into account the post-Iraq world.
Blair, speaking to a hall of leading African politicians and economists yesterday, described the drive to restore hope for Africa as "one noble cause worth fighting for" in an era of cynicism and disengagement from the political process.
Explaining his plan for EU battle groups dedicated to the continent, he said: "There will be times when Africa cannot stop a conflict on its own. Then the rest of the international community must be there to help. That is why I want Africa to be the top priority for the EU's new rapidly deployable battle groups and to get them operational initially as soon as possible in 2005... These groups would allow the EU to respond to a crisis in Africa in 10 days."
Blair also revealed that Britain will train 20,000 African troops over the next five years.
His visit to one of the world's poorest countries coincided with a strong attack on Europe's aid strategy from the the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.
Brown said Brussels should spend an extra billion euros a year on low-income countries in Africa and Asia, calling it "nonsensical" that the EU was focusing its financial assistance on relatively rich countries in the Balkans.
African countries are saddled with US$305 billion in debt, and their products account for barely 2 percent of world trade. Total foreign investment in the continent has shrunk to US$11 billion a year.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese