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Sarkozy condemns Sudan
08/03/2008 12:38 - (SA)
Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy
condemned on Friday what he called the "deliberate and
disproportionate" use of force by Sudan in the killing of a
French soldier serving with European Union forces in Chad.
France's defence ministry said that a body found by Sudanese
authorities near the Chad border was identified by French
officials in Khartoum as that of a special forces sergeant who
went missing after a clash with Sudanese troops on Monday.
The soldier was killed and another was wounded after they
accidentally crossed from Chad into Sudan, in a remote region
near the Chad, Sudan and Central African Republic frontiers. The
wounded man rejoined EU forces.
The death was the first fatal casualty in the EU military
force which is still being deployed in eastern Chad. More than
half of its members are being provided by France.
French presidential spokesperson David Martinon said Sarkozy
had asked Sudan "to take all necessary measures" to prevent a
repeat of the incident.
Full clarification requested
He said Sarkozy condemned "with all possible firmness the
deliberate and disproportionate use of force" by Sudanese troops
against the EU force and "requested full clarification of the
circumstances of this tragedy".
French and EU officials had previously apologised for the
fact that the EU patrol had crossed the border into Sudan.
Martinon said the European security force in Chad (Eufor)
was conducting a "humanitarian protection mission to help the
refugee population of Darfur and the displaced Chadian
population".
The defence ministry in Paris said the soldiers who strayed
across the border encountered a Sudanese checkpoint and quickly
declared their identity, but were fired on without warning.
Sudan, however, said that a military jeep that entered from
Chad was carrying six French soldiers who opened fire on a
Sudanese army position.
It says five civilians were killed and two Sudanese soldiers
and four civilians were wounded in the clash.
Senegal sets up peace deal
The 3 700-strong Eufor mission being deployed in eastern
Chad has a United Nations mandate to protect refugees displaced
by violence in neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region.
But there
have been concerns that the mission risks being sucked into a
confrontation between Chad and Sudan.
The Chadian and Sudanese governments have accused each other
of backing hostile insurgents and fomenting conflict on their
common border and in Darfur, where political and ethnic violence
has killed some 200 000 people since 2003.
Earlier, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said in Paris
the leaders of Chad and Sudan were ready to sign a peace
agreement in Dakar next week, ahead of an Organisation of the
Islamic Conference (OIC) summit there.
Talks
Wade will host talks between Chadian President Idriss Deby
and Sudan's Omar Hassan al-Bashir to defuse the conflict between
the two countries and help bring peace to the western Sudanese
region of Darfur.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would sit in on
the talks between Deby and al-Bashir in Dakar next week, the
United Nations said in New York.
Deby and al-Bashir have met before to try to resolve the
differences between them, which have brought the neighbours
close to all-out war on a number of occasions.
But a string of past non-aggression pacts and pledges
between then, brokered mostly by Libya but also by Saudi Arabia,
have collapsed as fresh violence flares on their border.
- Reuters
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