N’DJAMENA, Chad
Chad's military-led government on Monday decreed an amnesty
for nearly 300 rebels and political dissidents, meeting a key demand by
opposition groups invited to join a forum on the troubled country's future.
President Mahamat Idriss Deby
The
amnesty will apply to 296 individuals sentenced for offences including
"crimes of opinion", "terrorism" and "harming the
integrity of the state," according to a ruling by the Council of Ministers
received by AFP.
Rebel groups have said the amnesty is a pre-condition
to joining a round table proposed by President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, 37, who took the reins after his
father Idriss Deby Itno was killed fighting insurgents in April.
On
taking office, the younger Deby dismissed the government, dissolved parliament
and repealed the constitution, promising to stage "free and
transparent" elections within 18 months.
In
August, he offered to launch a dialogue that would include rebel groups.
After
contacts in Qatar's capital Doha and Paris, the rebels last month set down
preconditions.
These
include "the release of prisoners of war, a general amnesty for all
political-military figures, and the return of rebel property seized by the
government."
The
decree issued Monday said it was "indispensable to sweep away the remnants
handed down from the dark periods of our times, by granting a general amnesty
to those who, for one reason or another, chose the path of exile and/or
violence to express their political divergences."
A
former French colony in the heart of central-northern Africa, Chad has a
long history of coups and fighting.
The
older Deby, like his son a career military officer, seized power in 1990.
He
governed the country with an iron fist for 30 years, staying in power after
being repeatedly returned in elections that opponents condemned as flawed or
rigged.
Relying
on air support from his ally France, he thwarted attempts by exiles crossing
from Libya or Sudan to advance on the capital N'Djamena.
The
amnesty applies to those who are in jail and others who have been sentenced but
are not in detention.
It
affects 39 people sentenced for harming state integrity or crimes of opinion.
It
also covers 257 members of armed groups who were jailed after an attempt by the
rebel coalition, the Union of Resistance Forces (UFR) to overthrow Deby senior
in 2019.
Government
spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah said the decree included a list of the names of
people benefiting from the amnesty.
"The
rebel leaders are not on it because they were already amnestied in 2018,"
he said.
Kingabe
Ogouzeimi de Tapol, spokesman for a large rebel group called the Front for
Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), whose forces were fighting Deby senior when
the former president was killed in April, welcomed the announcement.
"If
it is confirmed and is borne out in facts, this amnesty will be a major step
forward towards, among other things, dialogue, reconciliation and peace, which
all Chadians want," he told AFP.
Timan
Erdimi, the head of the UFR who lives in exile in Qatar, said the amnesty is
"part of our preconditions. This is a first step."
He
also pointed, however, to the "release of Tom Erdimi," his brother --
who according to relatives is being held in Egypt -- as well as "prisoners
of war and the return of seized property."
Kelma
Manatouma, a Chadian political researcher at Nanterre University near Paris,
said the move was "an important step towards reconciliation, and a
political act to give legitimacy to (Deby junior)... who had been contested
because of the dynastic succession."
"He
will pick up a capital of goodwill, both domestically and abroad, which will
include a potential presidential election bid," Manatouma predicted.
Chad,
whose military is considered to be the best in the Sahel, is a key country in
France's anti-jihadist campaign in the region.
The
handover of power to the younger Deby was quickly endorsed by Paris, and also
supported by the European Union (EU) and African Union (AU).
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