Chad:President Idriss Deby of Chad appeared yesterday to tone down his country's resistance to deployment of an international military force on its volatile eastern border with Sudan's Darfur region.
Chad has previously favoured deploying only international police to its eastern region, where Chadian government forces have been fighting rebels and aid agencies are helping hundreds of thousands of Sudanese and local refugees living in camps. After meeting new French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, Deby was asked by journalists about the possibility of UN blue helmets or European Union troops being deployed, and replied: "Why not?".
He said proposals for a force for eastern Chad would be made public by June 25th, the date on which France has called a meeting of foreign ministers from several countries to discuss Darfur.
"We are agreed on the principle of deploying a force, but there are still some points to resolve, on which we must agree. The results of the discussions will be made public before the 25th of this month. The discussion will be on the formula of this force," Mr Deby said. "We have been proposing this to the international community since 2004."
Faced with large numbers of refugees arriving from Darfur and struggling to contain violence linked to war in Darfur and a domestic rebellion, Chad has repeatedly called for international assistance to protect refugees in its eastern areas from what it has at times called Sudanese aggression.
- (Reuters)