Tripoli peace talks deadlocked – Chad rebels

June 23, 2007 ( DAKAR) — Peace talks between Chad’s government and rebel leaders are blocked over the government’s refusal to involve the country’s political parties in the discussions, a rebel spokesman said on Saturday.

Libya is brokering the talks in Tripoli to try to end an insurgency by a coalition of Chadian rebels fighting a hit-and-run guerrilla war against President Idriss Deby’s forces in eastern Chad. The area has also been hit by a spillover of the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Makaila Nguebla, a spokesman for the rebel Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD), said the government’s refusal to accept opposition politicians at the negotiating table risked plunging the east into all-out conflict.

“This is a sign of bad faith on the part of Idriss Deby,” Nguebla, who is based in Senegal’s capital Dakar, told Reuters.

“The reopening of full armed conflict is inevitable if this meeting in Tripoli fails,” he said, after speaking with colleagues in the Libyan capital.

It was not immediately possible to contact the Chadian government delegation, led by Minister of State Adoum Younousmi.

The rebels want Deby to agree to a national political dialogue that would lead to early free elections. Deby himself seized power in Chad in a 1990 eastern revolt and was re-elected last year in polls boycotted as unfair by opponents.

(Reuters)