Chad will destroy rebels inside Sudanese border – Deby

January 5, 2008 (N’DJAMENA) — Chad’s President Idriss Deby threatened on Saturday to send his armed forces into neighbouring Sudan to destroy rebel fighters he accuses Khartoum of supporting, and said he may break off diplomatic ties.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since a conflict began in Sudan’s border region of Darfur nearly five years ago, spilling fighters and refugees into eastern Chad.

Deby accuses Sudan of backing Chadian rebels trying to overthrow him, in particular of sheltering and re-arming them in recent weeks after eastern Chad’s worst fighting for months, which both army and rebels said killed hundreds.

“The Khartoum regime’s plot will never succeed,” Deby told hundreds of women who held a march on Saturday in Chad’s capital N’Djamena to protest against Sudan.

“We will not let them into our territory. We will destroy them in their den in Sudan. We will make them eat dust inside Sudan. The lightning bolt of our defence forces will strike them,” said Deby, a French-trained former fighter pilot who led his army in person against the rebels a few weeks ago.

Khartoum has repeatedly denied Deby’s charges of supporting Chadian rebels and in return accuses Deby of backing Sudanese rebel groups fighting Sudanese government forces in Darfur.

Last week, Sudan said Chadian aircraft had repeatedly bombed parts of Darfur.

Chad insisted its forces had targeted rebel units on the border without crossing into Sudanese territory, and accuses Sudan of fomenting unrest in order to hinder the planned deployment of European Union peacekeepers in eastern Chad.

Women at Saturday’s march demanded that Deby break off diplomatic relations with Sudan.

“That which women want, God wants. The government will rapidly examine this request with a view to giving its position in the coming days,” Deby said.

Key eastern Chadian rebel groups abandoned a Libyan-backed peace deal in November.

That led to an escalation of fighting in eastern Chad and a deterioration of Chad-Sudan relations just as the international community seeks to send peace forces to both countries.

International experts estimate Darfur’s war has killed some 200,000 people and forced 2.5 million from their homes, although Khartoum says the death toll is much lower.

The European Union plans to deploy around 4,000 troops to Chad, including a small number to its southern neighbour Central African Republic, to complement a 26,000-strong mixed United Nations-African Union force planned for Darfur itself.

Deployment of both forces has been held up by a lack of equipment, in particular transport and attack helicopters needed to police the vast, remote expanses of central Africa.

(Reuters)