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Chad, rebels sign final deal
26/10/2007 07:30 - (SA)
Sirte - Four Chadian rebel groups signed a final peace agreement with their government, three weeks after negotiating the preliminary deal.
The parties agreed on Thursday to an immediate ceasefire, amnesty for civil and military personnel and the release of all detainees from both sides.
The rebels were granted the right to form political parties and would share power within the government. They would also be allowed to join the military and security forces.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who presided over the talks in Sirte alongside Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Chadian President Idriss Deby, said: "I hope that this is the last stage in the peace process in Chad, and I guarantee that all signatories will abide by the agreement."
Army officers defect
Chad, an arid country, had been convulsed by civil wars and invasions since independence from France in 1960. The most recent conflict was intertwined with the four-year-old war in Sudan's Darfur region.
The Chadian president was from the same ethnic group as some of the Darfur rebels, and each country had accused the other of supporting rebel groups on the other's soil.
Hundreds of army officers and members of Deby's own family defected in 2005 after they accused him of not providing enough support to their kinsmen in Sudan.
Once described simply as clashes between nomadic Arab tribes and African farmers, both the Darfur and Chadian conflicts had grown increasingly complicated as rebel groups splintered, formed new alliances and received defectors over the years.
Armed bandits had taken advantage of the lawlessness to attack civilians, and local politicians had used ethnic rivalries to fan the violence.
Deployment 'strengthens Deby's regime'
Instability had increased ahead of a planned United Nations deployment in Darfur, which would work with African Union peacekeepers, and the announcement that European troops would be protecting aid workers and civilians in Chad and parts of its chaotic neighbour, the Central African Republic.
The Chadian deployment was widely seen as strengthening Deby's regime, which had also benefited from high oil prices that allowed it to buy more weapons.
In 2005, Deby removed constitutional term limits and won a third term in elections boycotted by the opposition.
The peace talks were sponsored by Libya and Sudan, and the agreement was signed by the Movement for Resistance and Change, the National Accord of Chad and two factions of the Front for United Forces for Development and Democracy.
The Chadian Minister of State for Infrastructure Adam Younsmi signed the peace agreement on behalf of the government, as he had the preliminary deal initialled on October 04.
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