UN chief urges Chad and Sudan to show restraint

January 31, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) — U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon urged the leaders of Sudan and Chad to exercise maximum restraint on Thursday as the Chadian government said Sudanese-backed rebels were advancing on its capital N’Djamena.

“It is crucial, and in view of the present incursions into eastern Chad, that both Chad and Sudan exercise maximum restraint, refrain from cross-border incursions and military activities,” Ban told reporters at an African summit in Ethiopia. “These developments are extremely dangerous and could lead to an escalation of the conflict in the region.”

Both Sudan and Chad accuse each other of supporting rebels in their respective territories, though each denies the charge.

The rising tensions came as European Union peacekeepers prepared to deploy in eastern Chad in the coming weeks. They will protect hundreds of thousands of refugees from violence spilling over the border with Sudan’s Darfur region.

A 26,000-strong joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission is due to deploy in Darfur, but only 9,000 members of the proposed force are on the ground so far.

U.N. officials are in talks with Khartoum about conditions it has set on the mission — including disabling its communications during security operations and banning night flights — that have raised concerns about its effectiveness.

Ban said he and Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir held a “good and constructive” meeting on the sidelines of the AU summit in Addis Ababa.

“Now we are in almost the final stage of agreeing a status of forces agreement which will facilitate the legal clarity for the peacekeepers,” Ban said.

“We have made some good understandings on the composition of forces. We must expedite the deployment of forces to the full strength of 26,000 mandated by the Security Council.”

International experts say some 200,000 have died in Darfur and 2.5 million have been uprooted in nearly five years of fighting.

(Reuters)