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Thursday, August 31, 2000

Team arrives in Nigeria
to help train peacekeepers

By Jon R. Anderson
Staff writer

A Special Forces "A-Team" has arrived in Nigeria, the first of what is expected to be a several hundred-strong contingent of Green Berets tasked with training West African nations bound for peacekeeping duties in war-torn Sierra Leone.

The 14-man team, augmented with a physician’s assistant and several medics, touched down in Nigeria last week and began preparing for at least 200 more Special Forces troops from Fort Bragg, N.C., officials said.

"The bulk of the force should get there sometime in October," a top official said.

The deployment also paves the way for an infusion of military hardware, including weapons, that will be shipped to Nigeria soon.

"What they’re doing is laying the groundwork for possible subsequent training missions," said European Command spokesman Maj. Ed Loomis.

The troops are part of 3rd Special Forces Group, which specializes in sub-Saharan Africa. The team has set up shop at a Nigerian military base in Ibadan.

The training itself will focus on "training the trainers," Loomis said. The Special Forces teams will teach officers and noncommissioned officers, who will then teach the rank-and-file troops while under Special Forces supervision.

The troops are expected to teach Nigerians the full gamut of peacekeeping skills, including setting up checkpoints and road blocks, patrolling and basic medical skills.

Sierra Leone has committed at least five battalions of peacekeepers to be trained over the next year.

Until recently, the United States had strained relations with Nigeria because of its poor human rights record, endemic corruption and seemingly never-ending series of military coups. In 1993, the United States banned all military assistance and arms sales, among other sanctions.

Relations have warmed since reform-minded and western-leaning Olesegun Obasanjo was elected president last year. Meanwhile, Nigeria, which is one of the most populous countries in Africa, has led United Nations peacekeeping contingents in both Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The already cash-strapped and deeply-in-debt country has spent $10 billion over the past ten years, and national leaders have been reluctant to return to the continuing quagmire in Sierra Leone without international assistance.

"The United States must come here and help you train to deal with the challenges of Sierra Leone," President Clinton told a gathering of top leaders during his visit to Nigeria last week, just as the first Special Forces team was arriving.

"I know that many of you have often felt the burden of your peacekeeping was heavier than the benefit. I know you have felt that," Clinton said. "But there’s no one else in West Africa with the size, the standing, the strength of military forces to do it."

Clinton announced a $60 million military aid package that will help them get under way. That money — as well as the Special Forces training — also will go to Ghana and other West African nations volunteering for duty in Sierra Leone, Clinton said.

Loomis said diplomatic negotiations are not completed for a U.S. military deployment to Ghana yet, but an assessment team had traveled there recently to determine what work would be done should the order be given.

Senegal also is high on the list to receive similar training and hardware, a top official said.

According to a State Department fact sheet released during Clinton’s visit to Nigeria, the United States will provide rifles, mortars, machine guns, ammunition, medical equipment, communications gear and vehicles to Nigeria.

Loomis said it will be the job of the Special Forces troops not only to train the Nigerians how to use the new equipment, but also give clear instructions in human rights as part of their peacekeeping work ups.

"This is not singling out Nigeria. We always emphasize human rights training, so this not a new thing," Loomis said.

Because of Nigeria’s checkered past surrounding human rights, the State Department plans to screen military personnel to weed out potential abusers.

"We will train the people they certify," Loomis said.