Sudan says France behind Chad’s air raids

July 19, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan has accused France of supporting the Chadian air raids in West Darfur last Thursday saying it had ordered Ndjamena to carry out the attack.
France and Chad are bound by an agreement on military technical cooperation signed on March 6, 1976 and an additional protocol on the stationing of French troops in Chad inked on April 7, 1990.
These agreements aim to reinforce the capacity of the Chadian army to guarantee the sovereignty of the State and to help it to build up its military capabilities. Also, in accordance with the 1976 agreement French troops can intervene to support Chad to defend its territorial integrity, upon Chadian request.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Sudan Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Mohamed Abdel Gader, accused Paris of supporting Ndjamena’s aggression against the Sudan.
Abdel Gader said the decision of the air raid was not in the hands of Chad, but the order of the attack had been given by France.
He further added that the Sudanese armed forces are able to hit Chad from “the beginning to the end”
However, several Sudanese officials in the past have said that Chad wants to drag Sudan into war with France which has a military presence in its former colony.
Sudan accused Chadian warplanes of bombing Um Dukhun area in West Darfur state on Thursday, an area believed to be the base for Chadian rebels opposed to the President Idriss Deby.
On May 4, Chadian rebels coming from Sudan launched an offensive against the Chadian army in eastern Chad but they were forced back into western Sudan, where they are based.
Sudanese Ambassador to the United Nations, Abdelmahmood Abdelhamim on Saturday also accused “some powers” within the Security Council of supporting Chad saying they are “well known”.
In March 2005, France presented a U.N. resolution allowing for the prosecution of Sudanese war-crimes suspects at the International Criminal Court. Since its adoption and the ICC arrest warrant for President Omer Al-Bashir some Sudanese officials have underscored France’s responsibility in the current stalemate.
(ST)