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Africa Horn
Chad doesnÂ’t want UN peacekeepers in east
2007-05-29
(SomaliNet) Fearing that its neighbours may see these foreign troops as a threat, Chad's government does not want a United Nations(UN) military peacekeeping force deployed in its violent east, the prime minister said on Monday.
Must have heard about their reputation for little girls.
ChadÂ’s Prime Minister Nouradine Delwa Kassire Coumakoye while speaking on French radio, also ruled out opening peace talks with eastern Chadian rebels unless they first accepted the authority of President Idriss Deby's government.

Meanwhile, a UN mission is in Chad to try to persuade Deby to accept UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's recommendation for a robust UN military force to be sent to the eastern border to halt violence spilling over from Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region. According to humanitarian groups, such a force is essential to protect around 234 000 Sudanese refugees and 120 000 Chadian civilians who have fled successive attacks by armed groups on both sides of the long, desolate and porous frontier.

However, Chad's government, which is battling an eastern rebellion by insurgents it says are supported by Sudan, has said it will only accept a UN police force, not a fully fledged military force of "blue helmet" peacekeepers. "We don't want green helmets or blue helmets. We don't want war," Coumakoye told Radio France Internationale (RFI). "We don't want to create an opportunity for our neighbours to think that we've brought in the forces of the international community to fight our adversaries," he added.
And they don't want to create a santuary for rebels fighting them.
According to diplomats and analysts, Chadian President Deby is being influenced by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, whom they say strongly objects to any Western-controlled multinational force being deployed in a country on his southern frontier.

Coumakoye said the Chadian government wanted the United Nations to support a police force, not troops, to protect the refugees, displaced civilians and humanitarian workers in eastern Chad. "The UN should help us with resources," he said.

The Chadian premier said the eastern rebels fighting a guerrilla war to topple Deby must first accept his rule for any political dialogue to be possible. "If they agree to stop challenging our institutions, then of course we can dialogue with them," he said.

Rebel leaders, who call Deby's rule corrupt, inept and illegitimate, have demanded a national political dialogue to organise early elections to appoint a successor to him. Deby, a former army commander who seized power through a 1990 revolt from the east, won re-election last year in polls which were boycotted as unfair by main opposition parties.
Posted by:Steve White

#2  "way"
--Hanging Chad
Posted by: Captain America   2007-05-29 22:17  

#1  "No way, dudes!"
-- Chad
Posted by: mojo   2007-05-29 10:32  

00:00