Chad will pursue mutineers into Sudan’s Darfur – minister

Nov 2, 2005 (N’DJAMENA) — Chad said it was ready to pursue scores of army deserters, who are demanding President Idriss Deby step down, inside neighbouring Sudan’s Darfur region after they fled over the border last month.

Chadian soldiers guard the border with Sudan. (AFP/file).

Chadian Defence Minister Bichara Issa Djadallah accused Sudan of allowing the deserters to collude with armed Chadian rebels whom he said the Sudanese authorities had long been harbouring within Darfur.

“We deplore the fact that under the benevolent eyes of the local authorities in Darfur, they have formed an alliance with the armed (Chadian) opposition installed in Darfur and long supported by the Sudanese authorities,” Djadallah said.

“Given this situation, the Chadian government reserves the right to pursue them,” he told state radio late on Tuesday.

The dissident soldiers have said they number around 600 men and call themselves the Platform for Change, National Unity and Democracy, whose French acronym is “SCUD”. They are demanding Deby step down and that he free political prisoners.

Deby has dissolved his Republican Guard and created a new elite security force charged with ensuring his safety in a move analysts and diplomats said was aimed at instilling order in the military and ensuring the survival of his administration.

Checkpoints jointly manned by soldiers and armed police who search vehicles for weapons have sprung up around the dusty capital N’Djamena and on main routes to other towns in the former French colony, diplomats say.

Sudan has said it is worried by the developments in its neighbour and is watching the situation closely.

FAILED COUP

Djadallah said he believed the group was made up of 86 men, higher than earlier government estimates, and that they were 100 km (62 miles) over the border, north of the town of el-Geneina.

“We are asking the deserters to end this dangerous adventure and to lay down their weapons. The Chadian government is ready to listen to them,” the minister said.

“Those who turn their back on this desertion will go before a military tribunal which will decide their fate. Those who refuse dialogue … will be cashiered and brought to justice to answer for their acts,” he said.

Deby, himself a former army chief who seized power in 1990, has been credited with bringing a measure of stability to Africa’s newest oil producer, although he has long had a tense relationship with the military.

He accused soldiers who attempted a short-lived mutiny in May 2004 of planning to assassinate him because they were angry at a crackdown on corruption in the armed forces.

“There is clearly a link between this desertion and the failed coup attempt of May 16, 2004,” Djadallah said.

The instability in Chad comes amid a row over how to spend proceeds from a new oil pipeline, which began pumping crude to neighbouring Cameroon for export last year.

The World Bank-backed project has been touted as a test case in Africa to show that oil revenues can benefit the poor, with 10 percent of the profit from crude production meant to be stored in a special “future generations” overseas fund.

But the government said last month it wanted to change the terms of the agreement so it could access millions of dollars of petro-dollars more quickly. Analysts say the need to bolster security is partly behind the government’s hunger for cash.

(Reuters)