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Chad: Lessons From Country About the Perils of Clinging on to Power
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The Nation (Nairobi)
ANALYSIS
9 February 2008
Posted to the web 11 February 2008
Hamadou Tidiane Sy
Nairobi
With the latest attack on Ndjamena by armed groups opposed to President Idriss Déby, war and violence in Chad is again on front pages, as it has been several times during the past three decades.
A wounded soldier rests in a hospital after fighting between government troops and rebels in N'Djamena. President Idriss Déby called on the EU to deploy a peacekeeping force urgently as his government sought to tighten security after a weekend rebel assault on the capital. Photo/ REUTERS
Since independence, this landlocked country in Central Africa sharing borders with no less than six countries - Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, the Central African Republic and Sudan - has known few periods of peace, and has never had a smooth and democratic transition from one leader to the next.
Military coup
President Déby, who has openly accused Sudan of masterminding and backing the attackers to topple him, came to power through a military coup in 1990. He was then a general heading the Chadian armed forces.
In nearly two decades of rule, he has worked hard to consolidate power, and to vest it with a "democratic" veil through elections. Whether the current crisis will end his rule is a difficult question, but it has revealed that the promises of a peaceful and democratic society have waned long ago for the ordinary Chadien.
As in many other parts of Africa, politicians competing for power have, played the "ethnic" card to generate support within their communities of origin, but the root of the crisis remains the battle for power and for the control resources.
The Darfur crisis and the tense relations between the authorities in Ndjamena and Khartoum have complicated things further, while the discovery and exploitation of oil have whetted new appetites.
The pledge by the European Union to deploy a multinational peacekeeping force (Eufor), has so far proved difficult to meet, leaving Chad alone to sort out its internal problems, with little "help" from the international community, apart from the French presence and public support, which has made things even more complex.
To the many, intricacies of Chad politics marred by violence and permanent battle for power, has always been added foreign influences, making of the crisis a hot potato not easy to untangle.
450,000 refugees
At a meeting in Brussels early February, four days after the "rebels" besieged Ndjamena, the EU announced its decision to put on hold the deployment of its Eufor 3,700 troops, supposed to the border of Chad with Sudan and the Central African Republic to protect 450,000 refugees.
In Europe, the fear is that the direct involvement of France and its open support for the government in Ndjamena may divert the Eufor from its original plans, or at least damage its image as a neutral body. President Déby has made it public that Chad needs the forces "as soon as possible to alleviate the burden his country is currently bearing."
At the same time leaders in West and Central Africa continue to warn the "rebel movements" that they will not recognise any regime that comes to power by force, while armed opposition claims to be still at the "gates of Ndjamena" waiting for better times to launch a new attack.
The latest reports indicated that more troops have been spotted some 400 kilometres from the capital, with a line of military pick-ups heading again to Ndjamena, which is now under the control of the forces loyal to the government, which enjoys the unanimous support of African leaders, and which in turn has angered the opposition groups.
The first warnings came from veteran leader Hadji Omar Bongo Ondimba of Gabon. In the very early stages of the recent crisis, Mr Bongo announced that none of his peers within the Central African Economic and Monetary Union (CEMAC) would recognise a regime that came to power by force.
Chad is a member of this regional bloc, together with Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville.
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"We will take our responsibilities if the rebel topple the regime (of Idriss Déby)", president Bongo said when first reports indicated the rebels had invaded Ndjamena and pushed president Déby to be confined to his presidential palace.
Besieged counterpart
President Bongo, who later sent a special aircraft to repatriate the Gabonese who fled to neighbouring Cameroon, also expressed solidarity with his besieged Chadian counterpart.
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