N’DJAMENA,
Chad — Delayed talks on
Chad’s future that the
ruling junta says are a “decisive moment” opened Saturday, even as some
opposition groups boycott the gathering.
اضافة اعلان
More than 1,400 delegates from the military
government, civil society, opposition parties, trade unions, and rebel groups
gathered in N’Djamena for the “national dialogue” that is scheduled to last
three weeks.
Junta chief
Gen. Mahamat Idriss Deby described the
forum, his brainchild, as a “decisive moment in history of our country” after
arriving in military dress surrounded by tight security to open the forum.
Earlier, he had first inaugurated a statue
symbolizing national unity at the January 15 palace in the capital N’Djamena
before reviewing an honor guard, an AFP journalist at the scene saw.
“This dialogue should allow us definitively to put
recourse to arms behind us,” said government spokesman Abderamane Koulamallah.
Deby in midweek signed a decree saying the forum
would make “sovereign” decisions which would be legally binding and that he
would act as guarantor.
The junta head took power in April 2021 at the age
of just 37 after his father, who ruled for 30 years, was killed during a
military operation against rebels.
The military leader says the talks should open the
way to “free and democratic” elections after an 18-month rule by the junta — a
deadline that France, the
African Union and others have urged him to uphold.
The dialogue, which should have begun in February,
was hit by repeated delays as Chad’s numerous rebel groups, meeting in Qatar,
squabbled over whether to attend.
In the end, around 40 groups on August 8 signed up
to a deal that included a ceasefire and guarantee of safe passage.
How to achieve lasting peace, reform state
institutions and grant fundamental freedoms to all topped the agenda.
Committees must also draw up a new constitution that
will be put to a referendum.
While a number of opposition groups appeared ready
to give the forum a chance, some groups did not attend.
The Front for
Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) boycotted the event which it considers to be “skewed in
advance” towards the military junta.
FACT is a key opposition group which did not sign
the peace accord and which triggered the offensive in the northeast last year
that ended in the death in combat of Deby’s father Idriss Deby.
Wakit Tamma, a large coalition of opposition parties
and civil society groups, is also refusing to take part, accusing the junta of
“human rights violations”.
Forum opponents are also upset at an indication Deby
may decide to stand as president having initially pledged not to do so on
assuming power as junta chief.
Succes Masra, leader of the Transformers party,
which is part of the Wakit Tamma coalition, on Saturday called for civil
resistance at a meeting in N’Djamena attended by several hundred supporters
which drew a large police presence.
After Saturday’s preliminaries, actual dialogue is
set to start on Sunday or Monday.
On Thursday, two exiled
rebel leaders,
Timan Erdimi and Mahamat Nouri of the Union of Forces for
Democracy and Development, a former defense minister, returned to Chad to
participate in the forum.
“We signed this agreement to rebuild Chad,” Erdimi,
the head of the Union of Resistance Forces, told AFP.
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