Written by Armel Ramadji Doumnande, RAMADJI.com
Sunday, 07 October 2007

A few days ago, a small Chadian rebel group dubbed CDRT signed a “deal” with the Chadian to stop fighting. On October 3rd, 2007, reports coming from Tripoli and relayed by several media outlets mentioned another “peace agreement” between the regime of General Idriss Deby Itno and some Chadian rebel fractions cherry picked by Colonel Mohammar Qaddafi. The Libyan colonel is known for his obsession of Chad and his constant meddling in Chadian affairs. This has been going on for years now and it has only brought more devastation to Chad but it seems like Chadians always run to him for solutions to their problems knowing that he is part of the problem. It seems like Chadians have never learned a single lesson from the past. Worse, the guy is clearly supporting General Idriss Deby Itno he has helped put in power in 1990. What viable and serious and non partisan mediation can Kaddhafi offer to Chadians when he, himself, is big chunk of the problem? God only knows.

Anatomy of the four rebel groups that signed the “Tripoli Agreement”
The groups that signed the so called “peace agreement” in Tripoli are the United Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) of General Mahamat Nouri made up mainly of Gorans and said to be filled with former high officials of the Hissene Habré regime among whom the notorious Guihini Korei who was the last Director of the political Gestapo known as the Directorate of Documentation and Security (DDS) that murdered thousands of innocent Chadian from 1982 to 1990. The second group is the UFDD-Fondamental, an Arab dissident fraction of the UFDD led by the triumvirate Ben Barka, Acheikh Ibn Oumar and Abdelwahid Aboud Makaye. The third group is the Rally of the Forces for Change (RFC) of Timan Erdimi who is an uncle of General Deby Itno. He was a high ranking official in the Deby system for years before dropping the ball and quitting. The RFC is dominated by the Zaghawa and filled with former elements of the mighty Republican Guard of General Deby who left in 2005. They are said to be heavily armed and to have a lot of resources, probably all the money put on the side when still serving Deby Itno. The last group in this quartet is the National Concord of Chad (CNT) led Colonel Hassan Al Jinedi. It is another Arab dominated group previously allied with the RaFD (currently RFC). All those rebel groups operate along the borders with the Sudanese Darfur and Khartoum has pretty much given them a green light to use its territory as a base of retreat in response to General Deby Itno’s backing of the Sudanese Darfur rebels groups. That’s the anatomy of the four groups that signed the agreement of Tripoli.

Overview of the rest of the Chadian rebel groups not included in the “deal”
The rest of Chadian rebel fractions who are fighting the Deby regime are not included in this so called “peace agreement”. They are for example TELSSI National Rebirth (TRN) of Colonel Mbailemal Michel which operate in the Southwest of Chad and is made up of Southerners, the Front for the Salvation of the Republic (FSR) of Colonel Ahmat H. Soubiane, former Ambassador to the USA, established in the East. The FSR is one of the recent armed groups created and is pretty heteroclite but led by the Arabs under Colonel Ahmat H. Soubiane. The other group dominated by the southerners is the Movement for Peace, Reconstruction and Progress(MPRD) led by southerner Djibrine Dassert, a former associate of President Déby. The MPRD is credited with an attack on a Chadian military barracks outside N’Djamena in November 2005. Colonel Djibrine Dassert and his men are established in the Southeast of the country. Another active group is the Popular Front for National Rebirth (FPRN) of Colonel Adoum Yacoub which operates in Southeast Chad along the borders with South Darfur. The Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT) of Choua Dazi occupies the extreme North. It is the principal rebel movement in northern Chad and created and led by former Defense Minister Youssouf Togoimi, an ethnic Toubou who began an armed rebellion against the Deby government in 1998, operating initially from his power base in the northern Tibesti Mountains. Togoïmi died in very mysterious conditions September 2002 and was succeeded by Aboubakar Choua Dazi. In December 2003 MDJT and the government signed a peace accord that was rejected by MDJT hardliners. Choua Dazi is still the leaders of that movement. Beside those groups there are others movements like the UFNT, MDD, the ANR, the CNR….All those other rebels groups have not been involved in this “deal”. Therefore, they are free to keep operating at will. The non involvement of those other components of the Chadian resistance casts serious doubts on the Tripoli agreements and makes its very fragile. Already, the Front for the Salvation of the Republic of Colonel Ahmat H. Soubiane, the UFNT, TELSSI and other rebels groups have rejected the “Tripoli agreement” and promised to keep fighting the Deby regime. The FSR went on sending clear warnings and declaring its opposition to the projected deployment of UN-EU forces in the area. For the FSR, this deployment is nothing else but a backing of the Deby regime by France under the cover of the UN-EU forces. Consequently, those forces can be easy target if they attempt to protect the regime of Deby. The message is crystal clear. No more meddling in Chadian internal affairs seems to say the FSR. The recent killing of the soldiers of the AMIS by Darfur rebels speaks volumes and should be a major lesson for all those countries that are planning to send their young men and women on the ground on the Chad – Sudan border and Chad-CAR limits. They must think twice before deploying their troops in Chad and getting caught in a nasty quagmire with no way out.

Not only the Chadian rebel groups excluded from the Tripoli talks are rejecting the “deal” but worse there are different interpretations of the “Tripoli agreement” by those who signed it. It seems like each of the four groups who signed the “deal” has its own understanding of the paper. Some of the four rebel groups say that the “Tripoli Agreement” is not a definitive one and that more discussions are needed to reach a final and global agreement. For the Chadian regime, it’s a done deal. Welcome to incoherent, messy and crazy Chad! The bottom line is that this smells very bad.

All this shows how shaky and ineffective Kaddhafi’s approach of trying to solve the Chadian conflict is. It won’t cut it Mr. Kaddhafi. The “my way or no way” practiced by the Libyan leader is not helping Chad at all. What Chadians needs is to go to the root causes of their conflict in order to fix it and find a lasting peace and stability. The quick-fixes applied here and there have never worked and the Libyans know that. Somebody needs to tell them one more time.

Band-aid remedies won’t do it
Chadians long for peace and stability. Chadians who have been suffering for decades desperately want peace, justice, freedom and democracy, pillars of a free, modern and developed society. Therefore, any gesture that goes in the direction of solving the Chadian conflict and ending the years of sufferings is welcome by everybody. However, signing separate “peace agreements” with some rebel groups hand picked by Libya and Sudan will not solve the problem. It’s a band-aid remedy and it won’t do it. A quick look at our history suffices to realize that those separate deals done on ethnic, familial, sectarian or religious basis sipping green tea under a tent have never worked in Chad. The proof is the ongoing war that has been wrecking havoc in the country for years. Those types of quick-fix peace deals may work somewhere else not in Chad because of the complex aspect of our problems. This calls for a serious diagnostics in order to come up with an efficient and sustainable therapy. Rushing to sign peace agreements has proven ineffective and a complete fiasco. There are numerous examples to illustrate that failure of previous separate peace deals. Captain Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim, the current Chadian Defense Minister, former leader of the United Front for Change, the former Chadian rebel group which launched a spectacular offensive against N’Djamena in April 2006 knows something about that. Less than two weeks ago, different sources have mentioned a failed attempt to poison him. He was rushed to a Parisian hospital to save his life. Other rebel leaders like Laokein Bardé, Kétté Nodji Moise, Abbas Koty and several others were murdered after signing truces with the regime of General Idriss Deby Itno. None of the peace deals signed with major rebellions in Chad under the iron fist rule of General Deby Itno have been fruitful. All have failed and ended in more killings, more massacres, and more destruction. Consequently, Chadians need to learn lessons from their failures and opt for a global and inclusive solution to save Chad.

We need an inclusive and global solution
What we urgently need is a global solution for the Chadian tragedy. Those separate “peace deals” brokered by the big guy of Syrte have never worked. Unfortunately, the Libyans keep being stubborn and pushy with their approaches which have never been successful in Chad. Our neighbors of the North tend to be very patronizing and keep believing that nothing can be done in Chad without them having their say in it. And the disappointing part of all this is that despite all the fiascos harvested in the different Libyan mediations in Chad, there are still some Chadians who always run to Tripoli for solutions to Chadian problems. I just don’t get it. What’s wrong with you people? I don’t believe a single moment that Libya is all for peace in Chad. So, please, stop your moronic and lame behavior. Just take a quick pick at the Chad-Libya track record in terms of peace agreements sponsored by Kaddhafi and you’ll figure out on your own that this way of dealing with the Chadian conflict isn’t going to work. The roots of the conflicts are never, never serious dealt with. How on earth do you expect to effectively solve the problem?

We need to go to a large and inclusive dialogue which will be the opportunity to lay down all the numerous problems which have been the source of our wars for the last 47 years. That meeting will be the right forum to speak frankly and name the root causes of the Chadian problem and find a way to solve them once for all and move forward on the path of a sustainable development. An inclusive dialogue under the watch and the monitoring of the International community is what Chad needs now to avoid hitting the bottom of evil.

Voices like those of the only radical opponent Ngarlejy Yorongar inside Chad ( the one opponent who has still some credibility in the eyes of Chadians!), Dr. Albissaty S. Allazam, the CSAPR, the COMPAS, the COPORT, the Libreville Group,…and several others have been calling for an inclusive forum under the auspices of the international community. Unfortunately, in his strategy to divide and rule, General Deby Itno has been very reluctant to go for that option. He would rather sign phony and crappy agreements here and there, hoping to shut down all the growing opposition to his doomed regime. That approach has worked because of the inconsistency of some of those who call themselves rebels or opponents to his regime due to the fact they are not really fighting for our people. Most of them are fighting for themselves and their selfish interests, not for our people. Being an opponent or a rebel in Chad has become what the French call ”fond de commerce (business opportunity)” for many and it has been detrimental to the good work of few who really strive for the emergence of a new Chad, a society built on a solid rock of the core values of peace, freedom, justice, democracy, accountability and development. Because of their failure to be unified and consistent in front of Deby Itno, he has been using that weakness to his advantage with the blessings of the big powers to be. After all, those big powers are only looking out for their selfish interests. They don’t really care if Chadians are being crushed by the dictatorship of Idriss Deby Itno. It’s business as usual. It’s shameful but that’s the hard reality of our world.

In any case, only a global solution will be successful in Chad. The rest is just nonsensical and will generate more rebels against the regime and more destabilization in the central Africa region already in serious trouble. If the UFDD, the UFDD-Fondamental, the CNT, and the RFC are tired to fight and want to join General Idriss Deby Itno and his crew in perpetuating evil against Chadians and against the entire Central Africa region, let them go and get lost.

Now, Chadians know exactly who are those who are standing up for them and who are the fake ones. Now, the Chadians know who those who preach something and do its contrary are. Those who are still so stupid and gullible to believe that peace will be reached with phony separate agreements haven’t gotten it yet. They are still getting it backwards. The sad truth is that General Idriss Deby Itno does not want a global solution which will put him on the EXIT door. He wants to die in power so dividing ensures the continuation of his iron fist rule because it weakens the opposition.

Throughout our wobbly and tumultuous history, we’ve seen a gazillion of similar pieces of crappy “peace agreements” come to life and die soon after. From Kano I to Kano II to Brazzaville, Libreville, Khartoum, Tripoli, to just list a few, we have seen it all. They led to nothing except more distrust, more wars, more divide, and more destruction. The solution to the Chadian problem is through a frank, open, direct, inclusive, “tabooless” dialogue under the auspices of the international community. It’s the only way out. It’s the only path to saving Chad and restoring hope to those millions of young Chadians who are fed up with the craziness of those so called leaders who really don’t care about the future of the country. It’s the only way to stop our hopeless youth from becoming easy target for recruitment for rebellions and other groups with dark agendas. It is known that in absence of hope and a better alternative in life, everything is possible and temptation becomes paramount. An inclusive meeting under the direction of the UN, AU, and EU is what Chadians call for. The rest is just an ugly joke and it won’t cut it.