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Thursday, November 2, 2000

U.S. servicemembers training
Senegalese on peacekeeping

By David Josar
Stuttgart bureau

About 40 U.S. servicemembers are this week concluding the largest African Crisis Response Initiative mission since the program began by training Senegalese soldiers how to run peacekeeping and humanitarian aid operations.

For the past 60 days, Americans from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines have shown Senegalese soldiers how to command troops, use high-technology equipment and organize rescue teams. The training is being conducted by the U.S. European Command in the Senegalese capital of Dakar and a second training site farther inland.

The operation was capped by two days of exercises this week when roughly 400 Senegalese soldiers executed scenarios where they had to deliver supplies to three towns in an area that also was occupied by rebels. Along the way, the convoys were attacked and the soldiers needed to treat the wounded.

"It was challenging from both sides," said Col. Christopher Gallavan, commander of the joint-training control group. "I think we taught the Senegal soldiers a lot that is going to have real impact down the line."

The operation, which includes U.S. soldiers dispatched from Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States, concludes Friday.

The Senegal operation is the largest training mission of the African Crisis Response Initiative since it was created by the U.S. State Department in 1996. Similar large-scale training is scheduled for Kenya in April.

Previously, U.S. troops trained smaller, battalion-sized groups of soldiers in Senegal, Uganda, Mali, Malawi, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Benin.

This is the first-time the ACRI has conducted the brigade-level training needed to maintain peacekeeping and humanitarian missions, said Aubrey Hooks, the special coordinator for the Initiative.

"We are using a building block approach to training," Hooks said. "We’ve trained them on the battalion level and now we want to pull them together at the brigade level."

Hooks, who was U.S. ambassador to the Congo from 1996 to 1999, said the leaders of the program want to work with the larger, more stable countries in Africa.

"We want to bring together another level so that we can provide command control in those countries," he said. "The basic mission is to increase the capacity of African countries to do peacekeeping."

The program’s goal is to train about 12,000 peacekeepers to form 10 to 12 battalion-sized units and two to three brigade-sized headquarters units. So far, about 6,000 peacekeepers have been trained in seven African countries.

The State Department said in a printed release that the program already has contributed to conflict resolution: Several African countries have deployed peacekeepers after having been trained by U.S. troops.

Earlier, the Senegal military was dispatched to assist with peacekeeping operations under the United Nations mission in the Central African Republic.

The Senegal training was split between classroom work in Dakar and field exercises in harsh savanna terrain about 40 miles east of the city where temperatures regularly approached 100 degrees.

U.S. military instructors taught Senegalese soldiers how to conduct checkpoint security, operate a convoy and run reconnaissance, said Lt. Col. James Bullinger, a spokesman for the exercise. Other classes, taught by engineers, showed soldiers to clear mine fields, he said.

Classes were held on individual-soldier skills, combat support, combat service-support functions, staff officer skills and military decision making.

Field exercises included dropping leaflets from the air, recapping wells in small villages and distributing 570 backpacks filled with school supplies to three elementary schools.

During the exercises, the soldiers dealt with simulated ambushes and navigating through a mock minefield.

"It was not total chaos but it put to use what they had learned," Bullinger said, adding that the U.S. military gets significant rewards for such training.

"Their countries are already involved in peacekeeping and if we teach them how to do it, then we don’t have to send in the U.S. military. That’s a savings to us," he said.

As part of ACRI, Senegal also was given $1.2 million in "nonlethal" equipment, including communications equipment, uniforms, generators, water purification systems, first-aid kits and mine clearing equipment.

"This is a pioneer effort and the first time it’s been done in Africa," Hooks said. "We’re pleased with the success."

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