[Marxism] Rebel army in surprise attack on Chad capital -- EU plan to put troops on border with Sudan is shaken

[Fred Feldman]

www.nytimes.com


February 3, 2008
Gun Battles in Chad’s Capital as Rebels Storm In 
By LYDIA POLGREEN
DAKAR, Senegal — A rebel army swarmed the capital of Chad on Saturday, and
gun battles erupted around the presidential palace, according to Chadian and
Western officials, in an attack that raised the specter of deeper chaos in
one the most war-scarred and fragile regions of the world.

Forces from a coalition of three rebel groups that have taken shelter in
Sudan for the past few years entered the capital, Ndjamena, early Saturday
after days of battle dozens of miles outside the city, Chadian officials
said. The suddenness and stealth of their arrival appeared to take the
military by surprise. 

A spokesman for the three rebel groups, Abdraman Koulamallah, said in a
statement posted on a rebel Web site that they were in the capital and were
“ready to facilitate, with the guarantee of the African Union, the
negotiated departure of President Idriss Déby and avoid a pointless blood
bath.” 

But Chad’s ambassador in Washington, Mahamoud Adam Bechir, said in a
telephone interview that the rebels who had reached the capital were a small
group that split from the main column of rebels headed toward the city. The
group had circumvented counterattacks by the Chadian military and stolen
into the capital, Mr. Bechir said, but was being chased by Presidential
Guard forces.

“They were able to infiltrate the capital, panic the population, fire at the
presidency and give the impression there is fighting going on at the
presidency,” Mr. Bechir said. “But everything is under control. President
Idriss Déby is in the palace. The Chadian military forces are chasing the
insurgents.”

He said that the airport had been closed to civilian flights and that
cellphone networks had been shut down to hamper rebel communication lines.
As a result, his account of the fighting could not be verified. 

The timing of the attack appeared to be linked to the planned arrival of a
European Union force that was to be deployed on the border in an effort to
protect refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan and from eastern Chad and
to prevent Chad from sliding into bloodshed, said Reed Brody, a lawyer at
Human Rights Watch who has studied Chad for many years. 

A vast, arid and landlocked nation in the heart of Africa, Chad has suffered
through years of civil war, military coups and tyrannical rule. But with the
crisis on its eastern border with Darfur and conflict over a booming oil
business in the south, the country has become increasingly unstable. 

Ndjamena was plunged into confusion Saturday, with gunfire echoing through
the streets while residents hunkered down in their homes, waiting for news.
The United States, France and the United Nations made preparations to
evacuate expatriates. 

Gabriel Stauring, an American antigenocide activist, was among about 50
people pinned down in a luxury hotel in the capital that came under heavy
fire. In an e-mail message, Mr. Stauring said that French military personnel
had exchanged heavy fire with rebels outside the hotel. 

“Bullets flew over our heads and parts of the walls and objects around us
came raining down on us,” he wrote.

The fighting in Ndjamena will surely further destabilize what is already one
of the most volatile regions of Africa. Chad and Sudan have traded
accusations and bombs in the past four years as the conflagration in Darfur
has increasingly consumed Chad as well.

Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees from Darfur are living in Chad,
and militia attacks from across the Sudanese border in 2006 forced tens of
thousands of Chadians to flee their homes as well. Ethnic violence in Chad
between Arab and non-Arab ethnic groups, echoes of the conflagration in
Darfur, has forced still more to flee. 

President Déby shares clan links to some of the leaders of the Darfur
rebellion, and the rebels operate from bases in Chad with near total
impunity, which has angered the Sudanese government and raised tensions
between the countries. 

Chad, meanwhile, accuses Sudan of sponsoring rebellions against Mr. Déby.
The three groups that are attacking the capital all had bases in Sudan,
according to analysts and diplomats, something that would be impossible
without the tacit approval of the Sudanese government. 

Mr. Brody, of Human Rights Watch, said that many Chadians feared a violent
takeover by a shadowy group of rebels, many of whom have ties to repressive
past regimes. “Nobody is going to miss Déby, but these guys aren’t exactly
fighting for freedom and democracy,” Mr. Brody said. 

In the past, France, the former colonial power in Chad, has used its
military forces in Chad to bolster Mr. Déby. But on Saturday, French troops
were focused on protecting expatriates, said Capt. Christophe Prazuck, a
spokesman for the French military. 

“At the present time, the French military forces are not involved in the
fighting,” he said. 

France maintains more than 1,200 troops in Chad, and on Friday and Saturday
added 300 more to help protect its citizens, according to French officials.
The United States State Department posted a message on its Web site urging
Americans to seek safety at the embassy if they wished to be evacuated.

France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, went on television to condemn
the rebel attack, and said President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke to Mr. Déby
several times on Saturday. Speaking on a different television news channel
in France, the defense minister, Hervé Morin, said France would remain
neutral in the conflict.

The current fighting has led the European Union to delay its deployment of
3,700 peacekeepers to protect refugees living on borders of Chad and the
Central African Republic. 

The delay of that force is a blow to France’s ambitions to use European
military power more forcefully, and senior French officials worked to keep
other contributors on board. 

“Politically it could be a little blow for our European operation in the
eastern part of Chad,” a senior French official said. “The others are
totally terrified.”

Elaine Sciolino and Basil Katz contributed reporting from Paris.