The UN must consider deploying international forces to eastern Chad, both Amnesty International and the French government are warning, as the situation there starts to bear a chilling resemblance to the human rights catastrophe across the border in Sudan’s Darfur region.
In a new report to be released on Thursday, Amnesty will draw new attention to a mounting crisis that has gone relatively unnoticed, even as public pressure has grown to stop the atrocities in Sudan.
Chad wrote to the Security Council in mid-June asking for action on what it describes as a Sudanese-backed destabilisation programme, and diplomats say France is advocating the possibility of international policing in the camps and aerial surveillance.
The pressure comes as the UN pushes for a force in Darfur to replace the overwhelmed African Union mission, but faces strong resistance from the Khartoum government. UN diplomats hope the AU will change Sudan’s mind at a summit this weekend in Banjul.
The violence in Chad is closely linked to the conflict in Darfur, as both Sudanese and Chadian rebels operate from across their respective borders and allegedly Khartoum-backed Janjaweed militia attack Chadian villages.
“The human rights situation is going to get much worse if the international community doesn’t wake up,” said Irene Khan, the head of Amnesty International, in an FT interview.
She noted a pattern of Chadian rebels attacking from Darfur, Chadian army forces responding and the Janjaweed moving in “from behind” to attack villages. A recent Amnesty mission gathered photographic evidence of the attackers bearing Sudanese ID cards and uniforms, she said.
Many Security Council powers are reluctant to establish a Chad force without an agreement on Darfur, with one western diplomat warning that a mission there without one on the Sudanese side of the border could worsen the situation.
But Ms Khan said it was wrong for the Chadian population to be held “hostage” by Sudanese intransigence. “They [the Security Council] should see this as a whole,” she said. “Action is needed on both sides of the border.”
Amnesty found some eastern Chadians were seeking ties with Darfur rebels and were “open in saying, we have to get armed”.
“We see the same pattern we saw in 2003 in Darfur,” Ms Khan said, noting a worrying rise in Arab versus African rhetoric. “The largest and wealthiest African groups are being targeted.”
