France, Sudan accused of backing opposing sides in Chad’s war
April 19, 2006 (KOU KOU ANGARANA, Chad) — The possible role of outsiders in Chad’s war came under a spotlight Wednesday, with the United States expressing concern over reports Sudan was backing the rebels, and the rebels saying they would have toppled President Idriss Deby by now if it weren’t for the French.
Chad, an impoverished, mostly desert country where oil was recently discovered, has rarely known peace since independence from France in 1960. Other countries often played a part in the violence. Deby himself seized power in 1990 with help from Libya and Sudan, and Libya has invaded more than once.
An April 13 rebel attack on the outskirts of the capital, N’djamena, has shaken Deby, who has tried to recast himself as a democrat and is seeking to extend his rule in May 3 elections. The rebel United Front for Democratic Change regrouping in the countryside.
Both the rebels and Deby say intelligence from France was crucial in helping government troops repulse the rebels on April 13. The government said at least 350 people died, while the rebel group says far fewer were killed, including only 20 of its own men.
“If not for the intervention of French troops, we would today be in a position to control the country,” Raoul Laona Gong, external affairs director for the rebel group known by the French acronym FUCD, said in an interview in Paris Wednesday.
Deby, in an interview published Wednesday in the French daily Le Figaro, praised France for providing critical intelligence, and said his government was rearming.
France’s Defense Ministry has said its forces had fired a warning shot toward rebels who carried out the siege on N’djamena on April 12. France then raised its 1,200-strong deployment in Chad by 150.
Chad no longer receives military hardware from France, but French troops are stationed in the country and Chadian officers continue to be trained by France. France has supported Deby but also supported the president he toppled. France has a cooperation agreement with Chad but a special decision would be needed for French forces to enter combat.
The rebels sent a letter to the French Foreign Ministry on Tuesday seeking a meeting. Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy refused to meet with the rebel group.
“It’s not expected that the minister will meet with representatives of movements that look to take power by force,” ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said at a regular news briefing Wednesday.
Gong said the rebels’ only support comes from Chad’s people. But the American ambassador to Chad has expressed concerns about reports alleging that neighboring Sudan is backing the rebels. Deby has repeatedly accused Sudan of supporting the rebels, a charge Sudan denies.
Chad and Sudan share a porous border that has turned increasingly violent during the three-year-old war in Sudan’s Darfur region, where Arab militias and African rebels are fighting. Some 180,000 people have died in Darfur and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes, many to camps in Chad.
“These reports that Sudan was indirectly or directly aiding the rebels are very troubling for us,” U.S. Ambassador Marc Wall said during a tour of volatile eastern Chad, from where the rebels launched their April 13 raid.
At a briefing on Tuesday, U.N. diplomats said Security Council ambassadors were told that 125 new vehicles transported well-armed rebel fighters in new uniforms 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the Sudan-Chad border to N’Djamena for the April 13 attack. Council members want to know who supplied the vehicles, weapons and uniforms, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.
The rebel threat has added to Deby’s frustration with his government’s agreement with the World Bank requiring he spend newfound oil wealth fighting poverty. Chad says it needs to spend the oil money on defense to fend off the rebels, not just development.
Chad’s parliament voted earlier this year to allow the release of more oil revenues to the government’s general budget instead of channeling them to health, education and infrastructure. The World Bank, which had helped finance Chad’s oil industry infrastructure, responded by freezing an escrow account with US$125 million in oil royalties and cutting US$124 million in financial aid.
Chad has threatened to close its oil pipeline if the World Bank doesn’t reverse those moves by April 30. The consortium that produces Chad’s oil has begun talks with the government on its threat to close the pipeline, a spokeswoman for Exxon Mobil, a member of the consortium, said Tuesday.
The government faced pressure on yet another front. About 80 percent of Chad’s estimated 50,000 civil servants have since Monday been on an indefinite strike over pay.
The countrywide strike was called after talks failed April 7 when the government said it can’t pay a 5 percent pay increase for all civil servants it agreed to in 2004, said Michel Barka, chairman of Union of Trade Unions of Chad.
Chad is among the poorest countries in the world, even though it began exporting oil in October 2003. Barka blamed rampant corruption for the government’s budget problems.
Barka said because of the large number of casualties following the rebel strike on the capital, government doctors and nurses have continued to work on humanitarian grounds.