TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/world/c/chad.2a

Text File | 1992-09-22 | 10.4 KB | 203 lines

                i                                                              History


   Ancient Arab manuscripts and modern archeological
investigations show that well-developed societies flourished
around Lake Chad more than 1,000 years ago. The kingdoms of
Kanem and Ouaddai were known to traders and geographers from the
late Middle Ages. From that time to the present, Chad has served
as a crossroads for the Muslim peoples of the desert and savanna
regions and the animist-Bantu tribes of the tropical forests.

   From pre-Christian times until the late Middle Ages, the Sao
people, who lived along the Chari River, produced interesting
terra cotta artifacts. Considerable archeological work has been
done on the sites of Sao settlements, 700 of which have been
identified. The relatively weak Sao chiefdoms eventually
disappeared as they were overtaken by the powerful chiefs of
what were to become the Kanem-Bornu and Baguirmi kingdoms. At
their peak, they and the Kingdom of Ouaddai controlled a good
part of what is now Chad and parts of Niger and Sudan. From 1500
to 1900, Arab slave raids were widespread.

   The French first penetrated Chad in 1891 and established
their authority through military expeditions, primarily against
the Muslim kingdoms. The first major colonial battle for Chad
was fought on April 22, 1900. Although the French won, their
commander, Major Lamy, was killed, as was Rabah, the leader of
the opposing African force. The French declared the territory
pacified in 1911, but armed clashes between colonial troops and
local bands continued for many years thereafter. The northern
region was not occupied by the French until 1914. In 1905,
administrative responsibility for Chad was placed under a
governor general stationed at Brazzaville. Although Chad joined
the French colonies of Gabon, Oubangui-Chari, and Moyen Congo to
form the federation of French Equatorial Africa (AEF) in 1910,
its status as a colony was not created until 1920.

   In 1959, the territory of French Equatorial Africa was
dissolved, and four states-Gabon, the Central African Republic,
Congo (Brazzaville), and Chad-became autonomous members of the
French Community. In 1960, Chad became an independent nation
under its first president, Francois Tombalbaye.

   Chad's long civil war began as a tax revolt in 1965, and soon
set the Muslim north and east against the southern-led
government. Even with the help of French combat forces, the
Tombalbaye government was never able to repress the insurgency.
Tombalbaye's rule became more irrational and brutal, leading the
military to carry out a coup d'etat in 1975, and to install Gen.
Felix Malloum, a southerner, as head of state. In 1978,
Malloum's government was broadened to include more northerners.
Internal dissent within the government led the northern prime
minister, Hissein Habre, to send his forces against the national
army at N'Djamena in February 1979. This act led to intense
fighting among the 11 factions that emerged. At this point, the
civil war had become so widespread that there was no effective
government, and external observers were obliged to step in.

   A series of four international conferences held first under
Nigerian and then Organization of African Unity (OAU)
sponsorship attempted to bring the Chadian factions together.
At the fourth conference, held in Lagos in August 1979, the
Lagos accord was signed, which established a transitional
government pending national elections. In November 1979, the
National Union Transition Government (GUNT) was created with a
mandate to govern for 18 months. Goukouni Oueddei, a northerner,
was named president; Col. Kamougue, a southerner, vice
president; and Habre, minister of defense.

   This coalition proved fragile, and in March 1980, renewed
fighting broke out between Goukouni's and Habre's forces. The
war dragged on inconclusively until Goukouni sought and obtained
Libyan intervention. More than 7,000 Libyan troops remained in
Chad until October 1981 when Goukouni requested complete
withdrawal of Libyan forces; Libyan forces actually departed
toward the end of November, pulling back to the Aozou Strip in
northern Chad, which they have occupied since 1973, and were
replaced by an OAU peacekeeping force of 3,500 troops from
Nigeria, Senegal, and Zaire. At the request of the OAU, the U.S.
Government allocated $12 million to provide airlift and
nonlethal equipment for these forces; $8 million was actually
spent.

   A special summit of the OAU's Ad Hoc committee on the
Chad/Libya Dispute in February 1982 called for reconciliation
among all the factions, particularly those led by Goukouni and
Habre, who had resumed fighting in eastern Chad. Although Habre
agreed to participate, Goukouni categorically refused to
negotiate with Habre. In a series of ensuing battles, Habre's
forces defeated the GUNT, and Habre occupied N'Djamena on June
7, 1982, the date of the founding of the third republic. The OAU
force remained neutral during the conflict, and all of its
elements were withdrawn from Chad at the end of June.

   In the summer of 1983, GUNT forces launched an offensive
against government positions in northern and eastern Chad.
Following a series of initial defeats, government forces
succeeded in stopping the rebels. At this point, Libyan forces
directly intervened once again, bombing government forces at
Faya Largeau and following with ground attacks, which forced the
government's troops to withdraw to the south. In response to
Libya's direct intervention, French and Zairian forces were sent
to Chad to assist in defending the government. With the
deployment of French troops, the military situation stabilized,
leaving the Libyans and rebels in control of all of the country
north of the 16th parallel.

   In September 1984, the French and Libyan Governments
announced agreement for a mutual withdrawal of their forces from
Chad. By mid-November 1984, all French and Zairian troops were
withdrawn. Libya never honored the withdrawal accord, and its
forces continued to occupy northern Chad.

   In November 1986, Habre's forces began attacks against the
Libyan occupiers of the northern third of the country. Although
Libyan forces were more heavily equipped than were the Chadians,
the Forces Armees Nationales Tchadiennes (FANT) won victories
at all the important cities involved between early January and
early April; particularly important were Chadian victories at
Ouadi-doum, Faya Largeau, and Fada in the first quarter of 1987.

   The Chadian offensive ended in August 1987, with the taking
of Aozou Town, the principal village in the Aozou Strip.
Chadian Government forces held the village for a month and lost
it on August 28, 1987. to a heavy Libyan counterattack. Libyan
forces continue to hold Aozou Airbase, a Libyan-built facility
straddling the border whose runway is inside Chadian territory,
as well as the rest of the Aozou Strip. An uneasy truce began
in September 1987 and continued as late as March 1988.


Political Conditions

   The Chadian Government, announced in October 1982, is
organized according to the Fundamental Act proclaimed by the
Command Council of the Armed Forces of the North (CCFAN). The
act provides for a president and head of state, a Council of
Ministers, and a 30-member National Consultative Council formed
of representatives from each of Chad's prefectures and
N'Djamena. In an effort to promote internal reconciliation,
members of all regions and ethnic groups of Chad have been
included in the Council of Ministers and the National
Consultative Council.

   From the time he assumed power in 1982, President Habre has
sought to bring about national reconciliation by winning the
allegiance of Chad's disaffected groups. President Habre said
that any opponents or exiles who wish to rejoin the Chadian
polity can do so without fear of recrimination or punishment.
Mr. Habre's own efforts at coming to grips with his opposition
has been assisted by a number of African leaders, principal
among them Gabon, President Omar Bongo.

   Largely through President Bongo's efforts, two of the chief
exile opposition groups, the Chadian Democratic Front and the
Coordinating Action Committee of the Democratic Revolutionary
Council, made their peace with the Habre government in late
1985. In 1986, all of the rebel Commando (CODO) groups in
southern Chad came in from the forests and joined forces with
President Habre. Many of these CODO rebels had been regular army
soldiers before and were reintegrated into the FANT.

   In the fall of 1986, fighters loyal to Goukouni Oueddei,
President of the now-moribund GUNT, began defecting to the FANT.
The trend continued into 1987, and these ex-GUNT forces played
an important role in the expulsion of the Libyans from the
north, particularly in the Tibesti. Oueddei, increasingly
isolated, has formed yet another version of the GUNT with
Tripoli's backing (March 1988). Ten high-ranking members of
President Habre's present government were leading opposition
figures when he took power in 1982.

   The primary political vehicle for the Habre government, the
National Union for Independence and Revolution (UNIR) was
established in June 1984. Efforts are underway to enlist members
into UNIR and establish committees from the village and block
level through regional committees. Structurally, UNIR is
composed of a congress in which supreme authority is vested, an
80-member Central Committee, and a l5-member executive bureau.
The functions and executive powers previously vested in the
CCFAN were taken over by UNIR, Chad's only active national
political grouping.

   In 1977, the OAU appointed an ad hoc committee, chaired by
Gabon's President Omar Bongo, to seek a peaceful solution to the
Chad/Libya conflict. Meetings at the head of state or
ministerial level have been held over the years, and President
Bongo has expended a great deal of effort in the search for a
solution. In the late fall of 1987, the ad hoc committee called
for and received documentation from both sides setting out legal
claims to the Aozou Strip. The committee was putatively to make
a definitive judgement on the technical merits of the two cases
in the spring of 1988. President Habre's bilateral diplomatic
efforts to negotiate a satisfactory end to the conflict have
thus far failed.


Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs,
      August 1988.