Hamadou Tidiane Sy
9 February 2008
analysis
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.
"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.
The Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal also "deplored what happened in Ndjamena" and reminded the African Union's position of zero-tolerance to military coups. But for President Wade, what is happening in Chad is also a failure of all Africans.
"No one is surprised, because there have been already several attempts (to topple Déby) which have failed. We all knew that this was due to happen. It is sad and it's a failure for Africa," Mr Wade said.
He also complained that African leaders wasted too much time "discussing crises on the continent", but at the end, simply dispersed with no concrete solution.
For Senegal, the ongoing Chadian crisis is already a real nightmare, as the government in Dakar is under severe pressure to put former president Hissène Habré on trial. Mr Habré, who ruled Chad between 1979 and 1990, was toppled by the current president and had to flee to Senegal where he has been living in exile ever since.
Now international organisations allege Mr Habré committed "massive" human rights violations during his days in government and has to face international justice, a position Senegal has to comply with after a formal request from the African Union.
Guinea's prime minister Lansana Kouyaté, appointed a year ago to end to a social uprising in his own country and save President Lansana Conté's regime, also criticised any attempt to take power through the bullet.
He was speaking from Abidjan, in Ivory Coast where he met the country's president Laurent Gbagbo, together with the Ivorian Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, who had attempted in September 2002 a violent coup in Ivory Coast.
Mr Soro was last year appointed prime minister following a 5-year crisis, which originated from a failed coup attempt similar to the one underway in Chad. President Gbagbo finally accepted to share power with his former foe in a bid to reunite their divided country.
Despite the support for Mr Déby from the leaders, voices from the civil society and rights organisations have criticised the Chadian ruler for his human rights record and for the arrest of civilian opponents during the current crisis.
The opposition, whose leaders have been arrested in Ndjamena, is even more critical. Members accuse both the African leaders and France of supporting a dictator. "They have closed their eyes to the lack of democracy in Chad and has aligned themselves with Idriss Deby", Mukaila Ngueblu, an opponent exiled in Dakar said.
For him, Mr Déby has closed all doors to a peaceful change of government and the opposition has no chance to take power through the ballot boxes.
But for President Déby, "democratically" elected in 2006 after he changed the Constitution in June 2005 to run once again for the presidency, the "so called civilian opposition" is a camp of traitors, "dangerously flirting" with the enemy.
He made the statement at a press conference when he first appeared in public after 5 days grounded in his presidential palace-turned military bunker.
Asked about the arrest of three opposition leaders in Ndjamena, he said they "are petty details" far below his responsibilities and none of his concern for the time. His concern at the moment is how to save his skin after days of looting and chaos.
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