DOHA —
Chad’s military government and more
than 40 opposition groups signed a deal Monday to launch national peace talks
this month, but the main rebel outfit refused to take part.
اضافة اعلان
UN and
African Union leaders urged the junta and
opposition to seize the latest opportunity to stabilize a country considered
key to international efforts to stamp out Islamic extremists in the Sahel
region.
But after five months of mediation efforts by Qatar,
the main rebel
Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) announced hours
before the ceremony in Doha that it would not join.
And several other armed groups, including the
Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic, also refused to sign
the agreement.
Under the deal, Mahamat Idriss Deby’s Transitional
Military Council and hundreds of opposition representatives will launch a
national peace dialogue in the capital, N’Djamena, on August 20.
Deby, who was in Doha for the signing, took power
after his father, long-time president
Idriss Deby Itno, was killed in April
last year shortly after taking personal charge of a counter-offensive against
the rebels.
The dialogue aims to agree the rules for a
presidential election that Deby has promised by October.
Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries, has
endured repeated uprisings and unrest since independence in 1960.
Deby promised a national dialogue and elections
within 18 months after seizing power, but the mediation has been fraught since
the first day when FACT and other groups walked out of the launch ceremony.
Ceasefire and protection
Opposition parties have demanded that Deby preclude himself from the
election, but Deby has said this can only be negotiated in N’Djamena.
He has also said
his transitional rule could be extended by another 18 months.
In a video
message, UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres said the signing was “a key
moment for the Chadian people” but that the national dialogue had to be
“inclusive” to succeed.
African Union
Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat said it would be “crucial” for both sides
to keep their promises to build trust with the Chadian people.
Qatar’s Foreign
Minister Sheikh
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said the accord
aimed to establish “a peace to replace the trouble and strife that the country
has known for many long years”.
But Jerome
Tubiana, a French expert on Chadian rebel groups, struck a cautious note. “It
is an agreement that will not resolve the issue of armed opposition” to the
regime, he said, noting the refusal of the main armed factions to take part.
Forty-three of
the 47 groups who remained at the end of the mediation signed the accord to
start national talks in N’Djamena on August 20.
Mahamat Zene
Cherif, the interim government’s foreign minister, acknowledged that there had
been “difficult talks” in Doha but said FACT had missed a “historic
opportunity” to help the country.
The European
Union also urged FACT to rethink.
“The European
Union encourages all the political-military groups that have not yet adhered to
the agreement to do so. This would allow the launch of a truly inclusive
national dialogue,” said a European Commission spokesperson.
The accord
commits all signatories to a ceasefire, while the government has guaranteed the
security of all those who return from abroad to take part in the talks.
FACT had
demanded increased safety guarantees and the release of more than 300 of its
fighters in government prisons.
FACT leader
Mahamat Mahadi Ali told AFP: “War does not resolve anything. We want a peaceful
and political resolution, but when we are forced to defend ourselves, we will
defend ourselves.”
Among the
signatories was a veteran rebel leader, Mahamat Nouri, 75, who has been signing
tentative peace agreements with Chadian governments since the 1970s.
He told AFP the
N’Djamena talks could work if there was “political goodwill” on all sides.
Choua Dazi,
another long-standing rebel, told AFP the N’Djamena talks had a “less than 50
percent chance of success” and that he did not expect an election this year.
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