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By Mohammed Ali Saeed
KHARTOUM: International efforts
to clinch Khartoum’s approval for UN peacekeepers in Darfur turned
on Thursday into a scramble to contain rising tension between Chad
and Sudan, following deadly border clashes.
Foreign envoys queued up to hold
talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, the latest being US
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who was due to arrive
later on Thursday.
South African President Thabo
Mbeki, on a visit to Sudan initially aimed at promoting former UN
chief Kofi Annan’s peacekeeping plan for Darfur, was enlisted by
Beshir to support mediation efforts with Chad.
“President Mbeki has always had
contacts with Chad on ways to contain the tensions between both our
countries and these contacts are continuing,” Beshir said on
Wednesday. “God willing, these contacts will yield positive
results.”
Chadian troops chased rebels
across the border with the Darfur region on Monday, sparking a
battle with the Sudanese army. Khartoum said 17 of its troops were
killed, while Chad speaks of 30 killed on both sides.
The clash was one of the most
serious of its kind since the start of the Darfur conflict between
rebels and Khartoum’s troops and allied Janjawed militia more than
four years ago. It heightened fears that the fighting would
eventually spill over into neighboring countries.
Libya also dispatched foreign
ministry number two Abdel Salem Triki, who held talks late on
Wednesday with Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno.
“I am happy that President Deby
assured me he would stick to the Tripoli accord,” the Libyan
mediator said, referring to a 2006 deal aimed at guaranteeing
security on the Sudan-Chad border.
The two neighbors have
chronically exchanged accusations of support for each other’s
armed opposition movements. Chad apologized for the incident but
Sudan insisted it wanted further assurances.
“Apologies are not enough . . .
there must be guarantees that such an aggression should not take
place in the future,” Foreign Under Secretary Mutref Siddeik said
on Wednesday.
Defense Minister Abdel Rahim
Mohammed Hussein also warned that his armed forces were capable of
“protecting the country and taking all measures for repulsing any
aggression.”
Negroponte’s trip to Sudan was
billed as a fresh push for the deployment of UN peacekeepers in
Darfur, an option that Beshir has consistently rejected despite the
African Union’s inability to contain the violence there.
--AFP
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