CHADIAN FM ACCUSES SAUDIS OF AIDING REBELS

C O N F I D E N T I A L NDJAMENA 001368

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/27/2016
TAGS: PREL PTER PREF CD SU SA LY
SUBJECT: CHADIAN FM ACCUSES SAUDIS OF AIDING REBELS

REF: A. N'DJAMENA 1360


B. N'DJAMENA 1356

C. N'DJAMENA 1357

D. N'DJAMENA 1358

Classified By: Poloff John O'Leary. Reasons 1.4 (b) & (d)


1. (U) Chadian Foreign Minister Allam-Mi called in the
Ambassador this morning, 11/27, to discuss the current rebel
attacks in Chad and the GOC's public allegation that Saudi
Arabia is supporting the rebellion. The FM was meeting with
each Chief of Mission individually.


2. (C) The FM stated that a rebel column of approximately
80 vehicles attacked the regional capital of Abeche and that
many of the rebel fighters belonged to the Kreda ethnic
group. The Kreda, stated the FM, tend to be fundamentalists
and have ties to al-Qa'ida in Saudi Arabia; hence, they
probably have a terrorist connection. The FM went on to
state that rebel leader Mahamat Nouri (United Front for
Democracy and Development and a former Chadian ambassador to
Riyadh) was a close friend of the Saudi Defense Minister, who
had given Nouri two million dollars to support the rebellion.


3. (C) Allam-Mi noted that the rebels withdrew before they
could be engaged by reinforced elements of the Chadian
National Army (ANT). He bemoaned the lack of an ANT rapid
reaction capability as well as a lack of sufficient air
surveillance.


4. (C) The Foreign Minister reiterated that Chad would
accept an international civilian police/observer force on the
Chadian side of the border with Sudan to protect the refugee
camps. The GOC did not want a UN blue hat force, he
restated, because the Chadian Government did not want to
provoke either Sudan or Libya into instigating additional
problems in Chad. He noted that the mixed Chadian/Sudanese
roving patrols along their mutual border, as agreed to in the
Tripoli Accords, had never been implemented. He hoped that
the proposed UN/AU hybrid force agreed to in Addis Ababa
would help alleviate the problem of cross-border rebel
activity.


5. (C) The Chadians were making progress in establishing
democratic institutions, Allam-Mi asserted; and the process
would go back to "zero" if the rebels took control. He asked
that the United States condemn the current rebel attack as it
had previous rebel incursions. He also asked for unspecified
additional aid for the Chadian army.


6. (C) Comment. Saudi Arabia hosts a sizeable community of
Chadians drawn from the Kreda ethnic group, many of whose
families have lived there for several generations. In a
conversation later in the afternoon, the Saudi Charge
d'Affairs told Poloff that during his session with Allam-Mi,
the Foreign Minister had merely recapped the charge of Saudi
complicity and asked the Charge to pass it on to Riyadh. The
Charge said he had been surprised by the public nature of the
Chadian accusation, and he believed that the GOC had nothing
concrete to back it up. End comment.


7. (U) Tripoli minimize considered.
WALL