Chad’s Deby wants definitive settlement to conflict with Sudan
May 30, 2009 (SABRATHA, Libya) — Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno expressed hopes today to reach a definitive settlement to the conflict with the Sudan.
He further expected that Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi and the United Nations resolve the conflict with the help of “other friendly countries.”
Chadian rebels, who came from Sudan, attacked the eastern Chad on May 4, following the signing of a normalization deal between Sudan and Chad in Doha. Following the attack Chadian warplanes raided rebel positions inside Sudan.
President Deby criticized the Libyan position which had opposed the condemnation of the Sudanese government by the UN Security Council. Also, he had rejected any role of the African Union in the resolution of the tension with Sudan.
The Chadian president also said he wants peace in Darfur region adding that the six-year conflict in the Sudanese province affected his country. Chad is “the country most disadvantaged” by Darfur conflict, he stressed.
He also described the armed opposition as mercenaries that he completely defeated. He further added “those who fled went back to Sudan. They are being held by the Sudanese authorities.”
Following the attack the UN and French government, believing the existence of political crisis in Chad, urged the President Deby to negotiate with the rebels.
The Libyan leader appealed the Sudanese and Chadian presidents to end their conflict in his speech at the summit of Saharan states.
“We count on the wisdom of the two presidents (Bashir and Deby) and their responsibilities towards their people and Africa, to distinguish between the internal problems and the problems that bedevil relations between the two countries,” Gadhafi said.
Gadhafi held a series of meeting between the presidents of the two countries on the sidelines of the CEN-SAD summit.
The Qatari state minister for foreign affairs said last week that a summit would be held in Tripoli to end the conflict.
(ST)