Chad rebels oppose UN force for Darfur – spokesman

Oct 12, 2006 (DAKAR) — Chadian rebels oppose the idea of a United Nations peacekeeping force on the Sudan-Chad border because this would obstruct their fight to overthrow President Idriss Deby, a rebel spokesman said on Thursday.

Albissaty Saleh Allazan, who said he was speaking for the military command of the divided Chadian rebel group FUC, said international moves to send U.N. forces to Sudan’s violent

Darfur border region would help Chad’s Deby, and not his foes.

“We of the Chadian opposition fear the presence of U.N. forces in this region. We think that these U.N. forces, who say they would provide security to the people of Darfur, would prevent us from advancing towards (the Chadian capital) N’Djamena,” Allazan told reporters in Dakar, Senegal.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is fiercely resisting a U.N. Security Council resolution authorising the U.N. to replace an ill-equipped African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, which shares a long, porous border with eastern Chad.

Political and ethnic fighting in Darfur, which has killed tens of thousands of people since 2003 and displaced more than two million, has often spilt over the border into Chad, where several rebel groups are fighting to topple Deby.

Allazan told a news conference he was seeking the intervention of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade to persuade Deby to start a political dialogue with the Chadian rebels.

Fighters from FUC (United Front for Democratic Change) attacked N’Djamena in April, three weeks before an election which returned Deby for a third term in office. He has ruled since seizing power in a 1990 revolt from the east.

The April attack on N’Djamena was beaten back by government forces. Since then the rebel coalition has splintered badly along rival ethnic and political lines, dashing its hopes of presenting a powerful, united front against Deby.

Chad government forces fought battles with two separate rebel groups, the FUC and the Rally of Democratic Forces (RAFD), in eastern Chad last month.

Allazan complained that by focussing on Darfur, the world was ignoring the conflict in Chad.

“The international community has completely forgotten us, in favour of Darfur. That’s unfair,” he said.

The rebels, who have demanded Deby step down and hold fresh elections to choose a successor, were willing to negotiate, he said. “We didn’t take up arms just for pleasure. Deby has blocked all dialogue,” Allazan said.

(Reuters)