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Senegal says Libya sabotaged its efforts to reconcile Chad, Sudan

Aug 9, 2006 (DAKAR) — The leaders of Chad and Sudan failed to show up at a planned reconciliation summit in Senegal on Wednesday, in an apparent snub which a host official blamed on manoeuvring by Libya’s Muammar Gadhafi.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade announced the summit last week at the start of a tour to mediate between Sudan’s Omar Hassan al-Beshir and Chad’s Idriss Deby, who have been estranged over accusations Khartoum backed an April revolt against Deby.

But after Deby and al-Beshir agreed to restore diplomatic ties at a mini-summit in Chad on Tuesday, neither showed up in Dakar for Wednesday’s meeting, which a Senegalese official said had been indefinitely postponed.

Wade was unavailable for comment on Wednesday.

He had voiced vague suspicions on his return from meeting Deby and al-Beshir at Tuesday’s summit, where Gadhafi played a public role announcing the new deal.

"When I was leaving them the meeting was scheduled and they told me ’See you tomorrow’. But I knew there were all kind of manoeuvres," Wade told reporters late on Tuesday.

Wade has said he made the trip to Khartoum and N’Djamena on the specific request of Deby and al-Beshir.

But one of Wade’s officials said Gadhafi, who mediated in an earlier dispute between the two presidents and brokered a previous, unsuccessful peace agreement, had undermined his role to avoid being upstaged.

"Gadhafi could not tolerate that President Wade’s mediation between Chad and Sudan be successful, as he believes those countries are in his backyard," the Senegalese official said on condition of anonymity.

The dispute between Chad and Sudan has its roots in years of unrest in the volatile border area where eastern Chad meets Sudan’s violence-torn Darfur region.

Deby has often accused Sudan of backing rebels trying to unseat him who struck at the capital N’Djamena on April 13. The following day Deby broke off diplomatic links with Sudan.

In return, Sudan accused Chad of being in league with Darfuri rebel movements fighting Sudan’s army and pro-Khartoum Janjaweed militias.

At Tuesday’s summit on the sidelines of Deby’s inauguration for another 5-year term, the two presidents agreed to restore links, reopen their borders and work together to halt armed raids in the border area.