Chad urges UN Security Council to meet on Sudan aggression
June 21, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — Chad on Tuesday accused Sudan of cross-border attacks and urged the Security Council to meet over its neighbor’s alleged “aggression and destabilization.”
The attacks constitute “irrefutable proof” of Sudan’s efforts to threaten Chad “and even the subregion,” Chad’s U.N. Ambassador Mahamat Ali Adoum said in a letter to the council president.
The Chadian government has repeatedly brought the issue of Sudan’s destabilization to the African Union and the international community but hasn’t received “the appropriate response,” Adoum said.
Chad therefore “urgently requests the Security Council … to consider this situation in order to halt this macabre venture by the Sudan.”
The letter was written days after a high-level U.N. Security Council mission visited the two countries and saw how the three-year conflict in Sudan’s vast western Darfur region had spilled across the border into Chad and threatened to destabilize the subregion.
“We regard Chad’s concerns as serious and intend to discuss the issue within the council,” U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said in a statement.
The situation in Chad may be considered during an open meeting on June 29 on the council’s recent visit to Sudan and Chad, a council diplomat said.
According to Adoum, Chad’s President Idriss Deby told the council that Sudan’s destabilization of Chad’s institutions “has never stopped.”
Deby and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir signed an agreement in Tripoli, Libya, on Feb. 8, pledging to normallize diplomatic relations and work to prevent the presence of rebel groups on each other’s territory.
But more than four months later relations have worsened. The two countries accuse each other of fomenting instability, and Chad blamed Sudan for backing an unsuccessful rebel attack on its capital, N’Djamena on April 13. Khartoum denied any involvement.
“Despite the extremely important efforts made by the Chadian government and by the head of state himself in order to help resolve the Darfur conflict, Chad has nevertheless continued to be the target of armed bands and mercenaries in the pay of the government of Khartoum,” Adoum said.
Decades of low-level clashes in Darfur over land and water erupted into crisis in early 2003 when ethnic African rebel groups rose up against the Arab-led government, which responded by unleashing ethnic Arab militias known as Janjaweed, who have been accused of atrocities. The Sudanese government denies backing the Janjaweed but agreed under a May 5 peace agreement with the largest rebel group to disarm and disband them.
The conflict in Darfur has killed around 300,000 people and forced over 2 million to flee their homes 200,000 to flee their villages. Some 235,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur fled across the border in Chad. An estimated 50,000 Chadians have also fled their homes near the border in recent months.
(ST/AP)