http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id=B7E3921A-86E2-435F-A3F9-B3FAC6A8E77F
Ottawa may send troops to Iraq
Disaster relief unit: Proposal held up by ministers opposed to military involvement
Chris Wattie and Robert Fife, Ottawa Bureau Chief
National Post
Saturday, April 19, 2003
CREDIT: DND Photo
A member of the Canadian Forces‘ Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) treats a child while on a mission in Honduras.
ADVERTISEMENT
The federal government is considering sending more than 200 Canadian soldiers to Iraq, sources told the National Post yesterday, but the proposal has been tied up by infighting in the Liberal Cabinet.
Military and government sources said Ottawa wants to send a special Canadian Forces disaster relief unit to help restore order and rebuild Iraq, but some ministers are objecting to any Canadian military presence there.
Defence sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the military has drawn up plans to send the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to help with the rebuilding of Iraq.
"They‘re ready to go," one officer said. "And they‘d be perfect for that environment ... although it‘s a bit different than their other deployments."
The DART is not a combat unit, although it includes a security platoon. It was formed in 1996 to react to humanitarian crises around the world, but until now has primarily been sent to help with the aftermath of natural disasters rather than a war.
In 1998, the team was sent to Honduras to help with the effects of Hurricane Mitch, which killed more than 6,000 people and left nearly 20% of the nation‘s 5.3 million people homeless.
In 1999, it was sent to Turkey to help with the damage left by a massive earthquake. The DART helped treat survivors, repair the damage to buildings and restored electricity to the area in northwestern Turkey hit by the quake. The team designed and built a 2,500-person tent camp for those left homeless.
John McCallum, the Defence Minister, and John Manley, the Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, have been pushing to send the DART to help restore order and provide emergency assistance in the wake of the collapse of Saddam Hussein‘s regime.
But sources say the proposal has become bogged down in a turf war within Cabinet, with Bill Graham, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Susan Whelan, the Minister for International Co-operation, blocking the plan in favour of sending aid only through the Canadian International Development Agency.
Canada has pledged $100-million for the Iraqi relief effort.
Stockwell Day, the Foreign Affairs critic for the Canadian Alliance, said the Canadian troops should already be on their way to Iraq.
"We sat out the war, we shouldn‘t sit out the peace," Mr. Day said. "If it is the case that some ministers are blocking this, then those ministers need a wake-up call."
He said Canadian involvement in the post-war rebuilding of Iraq would help repair damage done to Canada-U.S. relations by a string of anti-American comments by Liberal MPs and Cabinet ministers.
"It would be a good move [because] while they‘re rebuilding bridges in Iraq they would also be rebuilding bridges and mending fences with the United States."
Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister, has said that Canada is prepared to offer RCMP officers and humanitarian aid to Iraq.
The United States has formally asked Canada to contribute to an international stabilization effort in post-war Iraq, a spokesmen for the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed yesterday.
But Reynald Doiron would not give details on what was offered or requested. "This remains to be discussed in government circles early next week."
The DART, a composite formation made up of elements of a number of Canadian Forces units, is based in Kingston, Ont., and was set up to allow Canada to react to international emergencies within days, or even hours.
It focuses on providing medical care, purified drinking water, rebuilding and emergency engineering services, and a stabilizing command and control structure for UN and civilian aid agencies.
However, it can only be sent in response to a request for aid from a host nation and can only operate in what one military source called "a permissive environment" where there is no combat or organized resistance.
Another problem may come from the Canadian Forces‘ ageing fleet of CC-130 Hercules transport planes, the DART‘s primary means of transportation to and from disaster scenes.
The air force this week grounded 20 planes of its 32-plane fleet after discovering cracks in the wings. The fatigue cracks were found on the oldest models of the Canadian Hercules, which are between 28 and 43 years old.
The team‘s equipment is already in place at a warehouse on CFB Trenton, the air base in eastern Ontario from which it can fly to any emergency in the world.
Captain Steven Hawken, a spokesman for the Canadian Forces, said the team can be on its way to a disaster scene within hours of getting the go-ahead from Ottawa.
"They start to move within 12 hours," he said. "The deployable main body goes inside 48 hours."
Capt. Hawken said the members of the team are currently on standby, but have not yet received any orders to deploy to Iraq.
"If the government makes the decision to send them, they‘re on their way," he said. "But right now they are carrying on business as usual."
If Ottawa approves the mission to Iraq, the team will send a reconnaissance team of about 12 officers to find a base for the operation and determine what will be needed.
The DART normally includes communications experts, a troop of engineers, a medical hospital unit and a defence and security platoon, most of which will be drawn from CFB Petawawa in northeastern Ontario.
The military engineers can help rebuild or repair needed infrastructure and the team includes a water supply section, which can produce about 100,000 litres a day of bulk and bagged water from a reverse osmosis water purification system.
cwattie@nationalpost.com; rfife@nationalpost.com
© Copyright 2003 National Post
