[Mb-civic] The looming chaos in Chad - Eric Reeves - Boston Globe Op-Ed
William Swiggard
swiggard at comcast.net
Wed Apr 26 03:58:49 PDT 2006
The looming chaos in Chad
By Eric Reeves | April 26, 2006 | The Boston Globe
IDRISS DEBY, the president of the central African country of Chad, may
soon lose power to a group of variously motivated rebel movements. The
deposing of Deby might not seem occasion for much regret: he is a cruel,
tyrannical, and corrupt man who has squandered a great deal of Chad's
new-found oil wealth. But the rebels who would replace him have the
deeply troubling support of the genocidal regime in Khartoum, Sudan. In
recent months, as Human Rights Watch has authoritatively reported, the
National Islamic Front in Khartoum has supported the Chadian rebels,
even as it has loosed its own murderous Arab militia allies on the
non-Arab tribal populations of eastern Chad. Indeed, Human Rights Watch
reports that ''the Janjaweed militias have carried out attacks inside
Chad accompanied by Sudanese army troops with helicopter gunship support."
Chad's capital, N'Djamena, is far to the west of the Chad/Sudan border;
but as Deby has begun to feel more threatened, he has redeployed his
military forces westward and into major garrisons in a desperate bid to
retain power. In fact, N'Djamena itself was attacked by the rebels on
April 13, and though the assault was repelled, military assets will be
increasingly concentrated in the capital and larger towns. This is bad
news not only for the Chadian civilians in the east, who now have almost
no protection, but for the quarter-million Darfuri refugees who are
increasingly threatened in camps up and down the very long Chad/Sudan
border. Aid organizations have already begun to withdraw from some
refugee camps, and after the April 13 attack, the UN's World Food
Program (the lead UN logistical organization in Chad) ordered the
evacuation of all non-essential personnel from N'Djamena. Humanitarian
access and security in eastern Chad continue to deteriorate badly as
Khartoum turns the region into an extension of the Darfur killing fields.
And things will soon get worse. Heavy seasonal rains begin in late May
or June, and these will sever the key east-west road arteries in Chad
(as they do in Darfur). It will become impossible for humanitarian
supplies to move overland. Moreover, a new government -- beholden to
Khartoum -- may decide to obstruct humanitarian aid in the same way that
Khartoum has in Darfur. Even air drops of food and medical supplies
could be hindered.
This may in the end have more to do with the chaos that will ensue if
Khartoum succeeds in its effort to topple Deby. There is little evidence
of common cause among the various rebel groups fighting under the vague
umbrella of the ''United Front for Change." The end of Deby's rule is
likely to usher in a period of infighting and chaos. Neighboring
Cameroon and the Central African Republic may also be destabilized.
None of this much matters to the genocidaires in Khartoum, who perceive
Deby simply as a supporter of the Darfuri insurgency movements, which
have two particularly prominent Zaghawa leaders. Deby is also a member
of the non-Arab (or ''African") Zaghawa tribe, which is found on both
sides of the border, and he has traditionally drawn a good deal of
political and military support from his fellow tribesmen. But while Deby
has certainly supported the Darfuri insurgents, most Zaghawa fault Deby
for not doing nearly enough to serve their cause in Darfur.
At this point in the crisis, however, it is fruitless for the
international community to apportion blame. Humanitarian needs must be
addressed, and anticipated, in the most urgent fashion. Plans must be
made for the continuation of humanitarian assistance to the many
hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians in eastern Chad who are
faced with the total loss of protection and humanitarian access. Under
international pressure, Deby has backed down from his threat to expel
from Chad the large Darfuri refugee population; he must be told
forcefully any further such threats will diminish his support within the
international community. The UN, which has dithered unconscionably in
providing security for humanitarians in Darfur, must begin emergency
planning for a UN peacekeeping deployment to eastern Chad. Part of its
mandate must be to staunch the flow of genocidal destruction from Darfur
into Chad.
All this will be only a short-term solution; the crises in Chad and
Darfur are inextricably linked. If the world wishes to end genocide in
Darfur, and prevent massive human destruction in eastern Chad, it must
exert immediate, concerted, and substantial pressure on Khartoum.
Eric Reeves is a professor at Smith College.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/04/26/the_looming_chaos_in_chad/
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