Chad 'must be held responsible'
2008-05-28 10:56
Yokohama - Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir on Wednesday demanded international action against Chad as tensions between the two countries flared over the Darfur crisis.
Beshir made his call at a summit of some 40 African leaders in Yokohama, Japan, striking a discordant note at the start of a meeting focused on development and poverty alleviation.
Earlier this month, Darfur rebels launched a deadly raid that reached the outskirts of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, with the declared intent of toppling Beshir's regime.
"A Darfurian rebel faction supported and equipped by the government of Chad launched a terrorist aggression against innocent civilians in the Sudanese capital," Beshir said.
"The world should no longer tolerate such actions," he told the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, which was attended by a senior Chadian minister.
Hundreds of thousands flee Darfur
Beshir insisted that Sudan was complying with international efforts to resolve the conflict in the parched western province of Darfur, where violence broke out in 2003.
"However, our efforts are being undermined by unjustifiable and unacceptable external violations of our sovereignty and the right of the Sudanese people to live in peace," he said.
Chad had denied backing the assault on Khartoum, which led Sudan to sever diplomatic relations.
The Darfur conflict had caused hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees to flee across the Chadian border.
Sudan and Chad had traded accusations that they were trying to destabilise their respective regimes.
The United Nations said the death toll from five years of war, famine and disease in Darfur might be up to 300 000 in a conflict that the United States had branded an act of genocide against Darfur's indigenous African population.
Khartoum puts the toll at 9 000.
- AFP