Chad to withdraw from AU if Sudan gets chair

Jan 27, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) — Chad will withdraw from the African Union if Sudan takes the chairmanship of the body next week, Chadian Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-Mi said on Saturday.

A diplomatic deadlock is expected at an AU summit next week as Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir hopes to secure the chair of the pan-African body after a promise made a year ago.

But spiralling violence in Sudan’s Darfur region has fuelled strong opposition to his bid. As host last year, Sudan wanted the leadership but Congo’s President Dennis Sassou Nguesso took over in a compromise.

“If (Sudan) gets it, Chad will withdraw from the African Union until Bashir is replaced,” Allam-Mi told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers in the Ethiopian capital before the summit.

“We will go. It’s ridiculous. There is the same situation there was last year at the Khartoum summit and the situation in Darfur is worse. Relations between Chad and Sudan are deteriorating. I do not see why Mr. Bashir should get the mandate.”

Chad has accused Khartoum of backing an uprising in its east while Sudan accuses it of supporting Darfur insurgents.

Fighting erupted in early 2003 when Darfur rebels took up arms against Bashir, saying he neglected the region.

Experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million forced from their homes in four years of rape, pillage and murder in Darfur, violence Washington calls genocide.

Khartoum denies genocide and says the Western media overplays the conflict. The International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in the region.

Asked his preference, Allam-Mi said: “Anyone, for the moment. I do not know if there are (other) candidates but not Bashir. It can be a country from west Africa, or a country from east Africa but not Bashir.”

The topic is likely to dominate next week’s summit, which will also discuss Darfur and post-war Somalia.

(Reuters)