Officer to plan for Sudan

JONATHAN CAMERON/Manawatu Standard

MAJOR DAD: Major Ed Craw, of Palmerston North, spends time with his three-year-old twin sons, Tutarangi and Harrison, before going on a six-month deployment to Sudan.

Military plans devised by Palmerston North Army Major Ed Craw will be executed by up to 10,000 United Nations troops based in the African nation of Sudan.

Major Craw leaves on Monday for a six-month tour as a plans staff officer at the UN Headquarters in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

Major Craw will be part of the 62-nation mission to support the Sudanese Government and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement in implementing the peace agreement they signed in 1995.

"I'll be responsible for the force level planning of the military component of the UN force in theatre," Major Craw said.

"We develop the plans and then we hand them over to another branch to execute them."

His major focus during the tour will be to plan military operations around the democratic elections in April. "The elections are a first major milestone of the peace agreement. A lot of the planning for that will already have been done but things will obviously change as we get closer to the time.

"There will be some planning for if trouble does erupt but I think both sides are very keen to get on with it."

The culmination of 11 years' army experience and a three-month planning course had equipped Major Craw for the role, which will see him work directly under the UN Force Commander Major-General Paban Jung Thapa, of Nepal.

Major Craw was keen for the experience and to work with such a large, multi-national force, but said leaving his wife Steph, also an army major, and their twin three-year-old boys, Tutarangi and Harrison, would be the hardest part.

"It will be harder on Steph, to be honest, because she's the one caught in the middle of it all."

He will contact them over the internet and telephone, and has recorded stories on a voice recorder.

"We'll also do up a little dad's deployment box with them. Just little things like the UN patches and a kiwi patch ... if they ever wonder what dad's up to they can go and rummage through that."

Two other New Zealand officers, including Palmerston North navy lieutenant Kerry Driver, will act as military observers in Sudan.

They will not be involved in the other UN mission in Sudan, which is based in Darfur.

- © Fairfax NZ News