Libya hopes to restore confidence between Sudan and Chad

May 20, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – Libya hopes to ease the current tension between Sudan and Chad and restore confidence and relations between the two neighboring countries, a Libyan official said.

Libyan deputy foreign minister Ali Abdelsalam Al-Triki who is in charge with African affairs was yesterday in Khartoum where he delivered a message to the Sudanese President from the Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi about the ongoing tension between Sudan and Chad.

“We spoke about plot which is targeting Sudan as part of the Arab nation,” Al-Triki told the official SUNA after the meeting. He further added “Libya hopes it will be able to normalize the relations between Sudan and Chad and to remove the tension and mis-confidence between the two countries through their commitment to the principles of non intervention in the internal affairs of other countries and good neighborliness.”

He also expressed hope to revive what was agreed between the two countries and find a mechanism to stop border incursions from both sides and not to harm bilateral relations.

The Chadian President Idriss Deby had slammed Libyan opposition to condemn Sudan over Chadian rebels’ attack on May 4. He also rejected African Union mediation in the conflict with Sudan. Libya is the current chairman of the regional body.

French Defense Minister Hervé Morin was in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, early this week to deliver a message from the French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Gadhafi urging him to pursue his efforts to ease the current tension between Sudan and Chad.

In Paris, Bernard Kouchner told the French parliament on Wednesday that the French army didn’t intervene to support the Chadian troops to repel the rebel attack. He further stressed on the Sudanese responsibility saying the rebels attacked from the Sudan.

In Ndjamena, the President Deby once again accused Sudan of wanting to destroy Chad and recruiting “mercenaries” to accomplish this mission. He urged the press to not speak about rebels but Sudanese agents.

He made these statements in a show of trophies of war organized in the Independence Square in the capital where some 50 pick-up trucks bearing the logo of the rebel UFR were parked together with some weapons.

“Here is the proof that the Khartoum government is determined to destroy Chad by using mercenaries,” Deby said.

Ndjamena show reminds a similar display of trophies organized by the Sudanese government in Omdurman after the attack of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement on Khartoum in May 2008.

Regional and international organizations without enthusiasm condemned the Chadian rebel attack earlier this month, but also some official voiced the need to exert efforts to settle the Chadian internal conflict as it is the case for Sudan.

“The Chadian government should start negotiations with the Chadian rebels, that should happen,” the UN deputy secretary general Haile Menkerios told AFP on Saturday.

“The problems in Darfur, Chad and Sudan exist because of governance issues in the two countries,” he said.

“At least in Sudan, there is a peace process. A similar approach should also happen in Chad between the government and the rebels.”

(ST)