Chad displays rebel "mercenaries"
By Daniel Flynn
N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad's government on Friday paraded captured rebels it said were recruited by Sudan as the capital N'Djamena recovered from a surprise raid by insurgents fighting President Idriss Deby.
The government said it repulsed Thursday's early morning attack in fighting that killed around 100 people and wounded 200, according to officials. But rebel leaders vowed to continue their campaign to oust Deby and disrupt elections next month.
The 160 prisoners, looking downcast and some wearing bedraggled camouflage uniforms, were displayed sitting on the ground before reporters and dignitaries in Independence Square at a rally aimed at bolstering popular support for Deby.
At least one was wounded, his arm dripping blood onto the ground, while another slumped forward in a faint.
The captives were shown along with 14 military vehicles, some damaged, which the government said it seized while repelling Thursday's rebel assault. Some of the vehicles were mounted with machineguns and rocket launchers.
The assault on N'Djamena was the boldest attack yet by the rebels who have vowed to end Deby's nearly 16-year rule over the landlocked central African oil producer, and to block a May 3 presidential election in which he is standing for re-election.
The surprise strike on the capital put on full alert a 1,200-strong French military contingent in Chad. French warplanes flew reconnaissance flights to track the insurgent columns and at one point fired warning shots.
"What you can see here are mercenaries the Sudan government has recruited among Sudanese and Chadians over there (in Sudan)," Chad's territorial administration minister, General Mahamat Ali Abdallah Nassour, told reporters.
Chad's government has repeatedly accused its western neighbour Sudan of financing and arming anti-Deby rebels from the conflict-torn Sudanese region of Darfur. The Sudanese government rejects this and demands that Chad provide proof.
One of the prisoners displayed in N'Djamena told reporters he was a Sudanese police officer of Chadian parents who had been offered 500,000 CFA francs ($923) to fight with the rebels.
Mahamat Ali Mahamat, 31, said he entered Chad for the first time three weeks ago and that a "difficult social situation" obliged him to join the rebels.
CAPITAL CALM
N'Djamena appeared calm following Thursday's attack. There were traffic and people in the streets and some shops and markets opened, though the activity was less than normal.
While government ministers said they had blocked the rebel advance -- which made some foreign embassies and aid groups evacuate families and non-essential staff -- the rebels said they would continue their offensive.
"We were at the doorstep of N'Djamena and at the right moment we will take the city," Albissaty Saleh Allazam, a spokesman for the rebel United Front for Democratic Change (FUC), told France's RFI radio.
But General Nassour said government forces were mopping up fleeing rebels outside the capital. The government says it also repulsed a second rebel attack on Thursday against the town of Adre on the eastern border with Sudan.
Deby's opponents denounce what they see as his autocratic and clan-based rule and accuse him of corruption. His grip on power has been weakened recently by a wave of army desertions.
International concern, already focussed on Darfur, has been growing over the escalating conflict in Chad.
Former colonial power France has made clear it opposes any attempt to overthrow Deby by force while U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the African Union (AU) strongly condemned any attempt to seize power.
Deby, who took power in a 1990 military revolt from the east, has vowed the May 3 poll will go ahead. He will face four candidates with links to his government and is expected to win. The opposition is boycotting the polls.
(Additional reporting by Dany Danzoumbe in N'Djamena)