As Darfur violence spills into Chad, UN weighs deploying force

Feb 25, 2007 (BAHAI, Chad) — Tribal leaders and local officials in Chad are pushing hard for a U.N. peacekeeping force to be deployed to stop violence and protect refugees spilling over from desperate Darfur into next-door Sudan.

But the U.N. chief has warned such a force would face “serious risks” of rebel attack and Chad’s president also has concerns about such a force — raising further complications to international hopes of ending Darfur’s expanding disaster.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council last week that the volatile situation along the Chad-Sudan border could endanger any peacekeepers put into Chad to protect Darfur refugees and to lower tensions between the two countries.

The Security Council is considering forming such a mission, largely because Sudan’s government has stymied efforts to put U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur itself.

Local leaders in eastern Chad hope such a force arrives soon, even though Chad’s president has expressed concerns such a force could inflame tensions and instead has pushed for a U.N. civilian force, according to Ban.

“We are waiting impatiently for the international force to arrive and protect both the border and the refugees,” said Timan Deby, the sultan or traditional ruler of Bahai, a desert outpost in Chad near the Sudanese border, where tens of thousands of Darfur refugees live in wind-beaten camps under scorching sun.

The region’s governor, Atom Dillo, also said the U.N. force was necessary to stop Sudanese infiltration into Chad, which he said was part of Sudan’s strategy to destabilize its neighbor and prevent aid workers from helping the 230,000 refugees who have fled to Chad from Darfur.

More than 200,000 people have died in Sudan’s Darfur in four years of rebellion and brutal government counterinsurgency, says the U.N., which blames Sudan’s government for the bulk of the atrocities that have chased a total of 2.5 million people into refugee camps, both inside Sudan and in neighboring countries like Chad.

Chad’s President Idriss Deby has accepted in principle the idea of a U.N. mission on his border, but Western officials in Chad say he is wary that some Security Council members, mainly the U.S., might use the force as a starting point for a deployment into Darfur.

“He doesn’t want to be seen as facilitating a possible invasion of a neighboring state, even Sudan,” said one Western official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity.

Ban told the Security Council that if it decides to establish a peacekeeping mission, the force should help protect refugees, keep peace in refugee camps and deploy at key border locations to prevent cross-border attacks. But it would face “serious risks” of rebel attacks, he warned.

That is because Darfur refugees are not the only ones spilling over the porous border these days: Various rebel groups and militias also roam the vast, arid region — spreading Darfur-type violence.

Attacks on civilians have intensified along the northern stretches of the frontier over the last two weeks, the British aid group Oxfam said recently. And further south along the 500 kilometer border, dozens of civilians have been killed over the last few weeks, it said.

“Interethnic clashes and attacks on villages, including cross-border raids from neighboring Darfur, are being carried out with impunity,” the aid group said.

Chad supports the Darfur rebellion against the Sudanese government, and Sudan strongly backs Chadian rebels settled in Darfur, Western observers say.

The Chadian rebels based in Sudan launched several raids last year, briefly taking the major eastern Chad town of Abeche and attacking the capital, N’djamena. Reports of smaller clashes come almost daily.

Col. Vincent Tesnieres, who commands a 1,000-strong French force already deployed in Chad, accused Sudan of providing the rebels with the ground-air missiles that recently helped them down Chadian aircraft.

So far, none of the 12 Darfur refugee camps in Chad have been directly attacked, but neighboring villages are being plundered, officials say.

“What is striking is that we now witness a level of violence completely unknown to Chad before,” said Serge Male, the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Chad.

UNHCR says it has a contingency plan for up to 50,000 more people to arrive from Darfur.

It also is trying to relocate the Darfur refugee camps further east from the border with Sudan to ease the strain on Chad’s meager natural resources and the competition between Darfur refugees and Chadian villagers, who now often skirmish over firewood or water.

“We don’t want to be pessimistic, but we really hope the next rainy season will give us some reprieve,” said Angele Djohossou, the chief protection officer for UNCHR in eastern Chad.

She said the seasonal rains, due in July, tend to prevent military operations and should ease the urgent problem of lack of water.

The Chadian army is trying to protect the Darfur refugee camps but can’t do much because it needs to focus on protecting the border, said Gen. Kalimi Sangui Abdalla, who commands Chadian military operations on the eastern border.

“This is why we will welcome United Nations forces,” he said.

(AP)