From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Sep 16 2008 - 15:00:58 EDT
Chad, Sudan commit to renewing diplomatic ties: mediators
16.9.2008
LIBREVILLE (AFP) - Sudan and Chad are to restore diplomatic relations, mediators said Tuesday, five months after Khartoum accused Ndjamena of backing rebels in its Darfur region.
The contact group, which comprises Gabon, Libya, Congo, Senegal, Eritrea, Chad and Sudan, issued a statement Tuesday confirming the breakthrough.
"Fruitful exchanges has enabled the firm commitment of Chad and Sudan to formally restore diplomatic relations with the exchange of ambassadors before the contact group's sixth meeting in October in Ndjamena," it said.
The statement came after a contact group meeting on Friday to discuss the issue in Eritrean capital Asmara. The group will meet again in Chad's capital Ndjamena next month.
The meeting also decided to finalise preparations for a security force of 1,000 Sudanese and 1,000 Chadian soldiers to protect observers who would monitor the border.
"The contact group is committed to deploying a peacekeeping and security force as soon as possible and open an operational command centre in Tripoli," the Libyan capital, the statement said.
The details on the organisation of the peacekeeping forces still have to be "finalised", Chad's Foreign Minister Moussa Faki told AFP on Tuesday.
"We will have to finalise all that," Faki said by telephone from Libreville. "The principle has been agreed. Chad supplies 1,000 men and Sudan supplies another 1,000."
But Faki ruled out further joint operations between Chad and Sudan, except those carried out under the control of EUFOR, the EU's peacekeeping mission which has a presence in central Africa.
Sudan broke off diplomatic relations with Chad in May after Darfur rebels the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) launched an attack near the capital Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
Chad denied any involvement but relations between the two countries have long been difficult, with each country denying the other's accusations that they are supporting rebel movements fighting against their respective regimes.
The two countries also broke off diplomatic relations in 2006 for four months after a rebel attack on Chad.
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