We have 17 days to save half a million people - Amnesty

Amnesty International has warned of a ‘potential nightmare scenario’ in eastern Chad. Almost 500,000 people are at serious risk if the number of UN peacekeepers is reduced and they are no longer able to protect civilians. Amnesty International members across Europe are logging on to www.amnesty.org/actforchad to demand the French Government ensures the peacekeepers stay.

Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland, said: “This has the potential to be a real nightmare scenario. There are almost 500,000 people living in constant fear of attack in camps across eastern Chad. The only protection they have is an understrength UN mission with less than 3,500 troops.

“The compromise agreement announced over the weekend between UN negotiators and Chad is hopelessly inadequate. The size of the UN force will be halved and, crucially, they will no longer have a mandate that enables them to protect the camps from attack.

“This week Amnesty International members across Europe are writing letters, sending emails and making phone calls to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. They will all be making the same demand. The international community must ensure the peacekeepers stay and that they have the numbers, resources and authority to protect the camps.

“France is the lead member of the UN Security Council on this. It was France that argued for peacekeepers to be deployed to Chad in the first place and provided half the troops. It is France that holds the key.

“The UN force is already over stretched. Rape in the camps is at epidemic levels. Children are being recruited into militias and rebel groups. Chad’s government wants the peacekeepers out but it is unable and unwilling to protect the camps.

“If the UN peacekeepers are withdrawn, half a million men, women and children will be defenceless before armed groups, Chadian rebels, marauding janjaweed and bandits.

“Disaster here will not stay within Chad’s borders. Almost 250,000 of these people are refugees who fled the conflict in neighbouring Darfur. If the camps are no longer protected they will be forced to flee back across the border with the potential to destabilise Darfur’s fragile peace.

”We have days to act to save half a million people. We need people to take action now. Log on to www.amnesty.org/actforchad and tell the French President the peacekeepers must stay.”

Background
The UN force, MINURCAT, was set up in 2009 and operates in eastern Chad and north-eastern Central African Republic. Its mandate was due to run out on 15 March 2010 but the UN Security Council extended it to 15 May 2010. It replaced an EU force deployed in early 2008.

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Find out more about the situation in Chad