[R-G] France backs Deby, may intervene in Chad

[Anthony Fenton]

csmonitor.com - The Christian Science Monitor Online
from the February 06, 2008 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/ 
2008/0206/p04s03-woaf.html
France backs Deby, may intervene in Chad
After a green light from the UN, France decided Tuesday to scrap its  
neutrality and help fend off a rebel advance.
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Johannesburg, South Africa

After proclaiming its neutrality over the past few days, France has  
decided it has the right to intervene to back up the government of  
President Idriss Déby against thousands of Chadian rebels hovering  
around the capital city of N'Djamena.

France's about-face came after the UN Security Council told France it  
had the right to intervene if it felt it was necessary. On Tuesday,  
President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters that France would "do its  
duty" to support the "legitimately elected" government if it was  
necessary to do so. French Defense Minister Hervé Morin described the  
decision as a "sword of Damocles" over the rebel forces surrounding  
N'Djamena.

In any case, Mr. Morin added, the rebels appear to be retreating.  
"Every day and even every hour that passes shows [Mr. Deby] regaining  
control of the whole country," Morin told French radio.

Given what is at stake in Chad – a $300 million humanitarian aid  
operation to look after some 400,000 refugees from Sudan's Darfur  
region and from Chad itself – the swiftness of the UN's decision to  
intervene may come as no surprise. But it is a staggering decision  
nonetheless, intervening in a sovereign country's internal affairs,  
and could have implications that extend far outside of Chad and into  
the neighboring conflict in Darfur itself.

Bastian Giegerich, a research fellow at the International Institute  
for Security Studies in London, says the swiftness of the UN decision  
"is a sign that this is much more complex than Chad politics. There  
is a French-backed relief mission in Chad that leads to Darfur, and  
the imminent deployment of the European Force, and the timing of the  
rebel attack seems to explain a lot of the swiftness of the decision."

In N'Djamena itself, a second day of peace allowed civilians to cross  
the border into Cameroon by the thousands on Tuesday. Rebel spokesman  
Henchi Ordjo told reporters that the rebels had retreated from the  
city to allow civilians to depart, and said they were ready for  
dialog on the condition that Déby steps down. The rebels – a  
coalition of three separate militant groups based in Sudan's Darfur  
region – say that Deby's government is corrupt and dictatorial.

If France does intervene to back up Déby's government, the move could  
erode European support for the French-led European Force (EUFOR)  
deployment of 3,700 European troops to protect refugees and aid  
workers in Eastern Chad. Some European partners, notably Austria and  
Sweden, have voiced strong reservations about contributing troops to  
a mission that might simply be an arm of French foreign policy.

"If the French government gets militarily involved in backing up  
Déby, some European nations like Austria will revise their commitment  
to contribute forces to EUFOR," says Paul Simon Handy, head of  
African security programs at the Institute for Security Studies in  
Pretoria.

Mr. Handy argues that the proposed goal of the EUFOR in eastern Chad  
is to protect Darfur refugees, Chadian displaced people, and aid  
workers from attack. Those attacks don't come from Chadian rebels,  
Handy says, but from criminals. French intervention won't solve that  
problem, he says, and it might create others, including the  
undermining of EUFOR's neutrality.