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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Chad rebels shrug off new Chad-Sudan peace deal |
| 2008-03-22 |
| (Xinhua) -- Chadian rebels Friday dismissed the new peace deal signed by President Idriss Deby and his Sudanese counterpart Omar Hassan al-Bashir, vowing to carrying on fighting unless Deby agreed to hold dialogue. The statement placed the implementation of the peace pact, which is aimed at ending cross-border rebel attacks in a region which includes Sudan's war-torn Darfur, in deep jeopardy. The two presidents signed the peace deal, which is the latest in a series of peace agreements aimed at pacifying their troubled relations, here Thursday evening. The new deal commits both nations to implement past accords that have so far failed to end violence in the area. However, the rebels in Chad said they would fight on unless President Deby agreed to dialogue. "It doesn't concern us," Ali Gadaye, spokesman for the Chadian rebel National Alliance, said Friday. He said if Deby did not want dialogue, then they would chase him out by force. The National Alliance was part of a rebel coalition that attacked the Chadian capital N'Djamena last month, besieging Deby in his presidential palace for two days. Thursday's peace deal pledged to ban the activities of all armed groups and to prevent the use of their respective territories to destabilize their neighbors. The rebels simply shrugged off the pact, saying they were in their own national territory and they had a clear objective of "liberating their people." |
| Posted by:Fred |