UN rebuffs EU proposal for humanitarian mission to Libya

Apr 12, 2011, 11:16 GMT

Luxembourg - The United Nations has rebuffed a European Union offer to deploy a military mission to assist humanitarian aid efforts in Libya, European officials in Luxembourg said Tuesday.

Speaking at a meeting of EU foreign ministers, the bloc's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said the UN believed there was no need for such a mission just yet.

The EU has begun planning a mission involving air and naval logistical support - EUFOR Libya - but is waiting for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to authorize its deployment.

'If the United Nations asks us to help them with our military support, to get aid into the country, we are ready to do so,' Ashton said. 'So far, they said there is not a need.'

Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had told him that OCHA would call on the EU only 'when it's absolutely necessary, as a last resort.'

Ashton wrote to Ban on Friday to let him know that the EU was ready to act, and is due to meet him on Thursday in Cairo. She said she fully understood OCHA's prudence.

'I don't describe their approach as sceptical, I describe their approach as right, they have to think very carefully before using those assets,' she said.

In an example of the issues at stake, the Moamer Gaddafi camp said on Monday it had warned 'the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union that any approach to the Libyan territory with the pretext of providing humanitarian aid will face violent and unexpected resistance from the armed people.'

But Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb suggested that OCHA's reluctance was also ideological.

'OCHA very often sees humanitarian aid as black and white, (it doesn't) want any military involvement, where sometimes as we know there is need for military assistance to get aid in,' he said.

An EU diplomat also told the German Press Agency dpa that 'it is an ideological opposition, which clashes with the reality on the ground.' The diplomat said other international organizations such as the International Organization for Migration saw the need for EU help.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague seemed to agree with the UN assessment, pointing out that so far 'humanitarian assistance is getting through to Libya, including to Misurata,' without any EU naval escort.

He was referring to the coastal town that has been besieged by forces loyal to the Libyan leader for seven weeks.

With residents there complaining about a lack of food, water and medicine, Turkey and Italy have sent their own ships there to bring in aid and evacuate seriously injured people.

EUFOR Libya would coordinate and strengthen those efforts, but 'we are not describing something where we are putting troops on the ground,' Ashton stressed.

Illustrating the extent of the humanitarian crisis in Misurata, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Monday said that at least 20 children died there, while tens of thousands more children were threatened by hunger, thirst, illness and death.

Spain's minister for EU affairs, Diego Lopez Garrido, said EU foreign ministers would continue planning for mission deployment despite OCHA's reluctance.

'What we will do today is to approve the military operation concept to protect the humanitarian work that the UN is carrying out in Libya. So today the EU will put itself at the disposal of the UN,' he said.

However, the deal on the 'concept of operations' was delayed by a few days by Sweden, an EU diplomat later said.

EU countries had already decided on April 1 that the 7.9-million- euro (11.5-million-dollar) EUFOR Libya would be based in Rome and led by Italian Rear Admiral Claudio Gaudiosi.

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