Chad to file complaint before UN Security Council against Sudan

June 11, 2006 (N’DJAMENA) — Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno is to bring Sudan before the UN Security Council for backing rebels trying to topple the controversially elected leader, Chad’s Foreign Minister said on Sunday.

Deby “told members of the Security Council at a meeting on Saturday evening that Chad intends to lodge a complaint about Sudanese aggression before the Security Council,” Foreign Minister Ahmat Allami said.

The move “follows on from the powerlessness of the African Union (AU) to mediate”, Allami said.

“Even if this was not clearly confirmed by Security Council members, we think that Chad’s cause was heard and understood.”

The AU was deployed following February’s Tripoli Agreement aimed at ending the conflict between the two African countries.

N’Djamena broke off diplomatic relations with Khartoum in April after a coup attempt by a rebel group which it accuses Sudan of backing. Clashes between Chadian army forces and rebels have followed.

Allami also said that the head of a Security Council delegation visiting Chad showed “great interest” in an announcement by Deby last week calling for dialogue with opposition groups in the central African country.

The offer of talks was not extended to rebel groups and the main opposition parties rejected it.

Deby seized power in 1990 before being elected in 1996 and 2001, then changed the country’s constitution to allow a third five-year term, which he won in elections in May. Opposition groups boycotted the poll.

(ST)