The claim on Saturday came after battles which left scores of people dead and provoked the government to threaten to break off ties with neighbouring Sudan.

Idriss Deby Itno, the Chadian president, renewed his accusations that the Union of Resistance Forces (UFR) is being backed by Sudan, warning that diplomacy between the nations could be cut.

The Chadian government says at least 225 UFR fighters and 22 soldiers were killed in the clashes south of the main eastern city of Abeche on Thursday and Friday.

Adoum Younousmi, Chad’s defence minister, said on Saturday: “It is a decisive victory.”

‘Khartoum involvement’

Deby, speaking at the presidential palace on Saturday, said: “The government must re-evaluate relations between Sudan and Chad, and envisages – if the situation does not evolve positively – the rupture of these relations.

“To this end, Sudanese cultural centres must be closed and schools financed by Sudan must be taken over by the Chadian government. Teachers who are really intelligence agents ought to return home.”

Deby himself took power in a putsch launched from Sudan in 1990. Khartoum rejects the accusations of involvement with the UFR.

South of Abeche, in the town of Am-Dam, government forces showed off their booty and prisoners to journalists, who also saw dozens of bodies and burned-out vehicles.

But a UFR source claimed that their forces were still massed southeast of Abeche and are intent on taking the capital, at least 600km to the west.

Adam Mustafa Ibrahim, the governor of Abeche, told Al Jazeera: “Security forces are on alert; they are patrolling the borders and control the situation.

“We do not pay attention to rumours, but if there is solid information regarding rebel movements, we will attack them as we have before.”

The fighting looks to have ended a peace accord signed by Khartoum and Ndjamena two weeks ago – the latest in a series of deals, none of which has had any longevity.

International criticism

The UN security council on Friday condemned the UFR incursion into eastern Chad from Sudan.

All 15 ambassadors agreed to a non-binding statement that “condemns the renewed military incursions in eastern Chad of Chadian armed groups, coming from outside”.

The UN statement also stressed that “any attempt at destabilisation of Chad by force is unacceptable”.

The European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) have spoken out against the UFR offensive.

Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, called on “the armed groups coming from Sudan in the east of Chad … to renounce violence and begin negotiations with the Chad government.”

Meanwhile, Ramtane Lamara, the AU’s peace and security commissioner, condemned “all kinds of anti-constitutional change of government, and acts of destabilisation”.

Chadian opposition fighters have sought to overthrow Deby for more than three years.

The UFR is led by Tiimane Erdimi, Deby’s nephew, who once held the brief of oil affairs in the government.

However, a split occurred within Deby’s inner circle over how to deal with the conflict in Darfur in Sudan leading to the rebellion.

Deby and many of his senior military officers hail from Sudan and have relatives living in Darfur.

About 300,000 Darfuri war refugees are camped in eastern Chad along with about 187,000 Chadians who have been uprooted by fighting in Chad and Darfur.

Chad claims victory over rebels

A U.N. panel of experts has suggested that Sudan delay elections due for July 2009 by at least four months because of expected heavy rains and logistical problems, a senior U.N. official said on Friday.

The first democratic poll in more than 20 years is to be held after a 2005 peace deal that ended a north-south civil war in Africa’s biggest country.

But a U.N. panel told the government of semi-autonomous south Sudan it might be better to push the election to the end of the year, or even into 2010, the U.N. regional coordinator for southern Sudan, David Gressly, told reporters.

Any delay could face opposition from southerners worried that they may also have to wait longer for a referendum on southern secession, promised in 2011 under the same north-south peace deal.

But Gressly said it would be impossible to run an election during south Sudan’s long rainy season which usually starts around June.

He added it would be problematic to get a poll going before the next rainy season, given delays in setting up key electoral legislation and bodies like the recently created electoral commission.

“We have provided our own guidance, proposing using the coming dry season (November to May) more for a registration process, and then the following one for elections and the following one after that for the referendum,” Gressly said.

He said the guidance, prepared at the request of south Sudan’s semi-autonomous government, did not amount to an official recommendation to change the election date.

He added that organisers also needed to factor in enough time to prepare voters for the complex elections that will involve up to 12 separate voting papers, covering ballots for everyone from the country’s president to members of state assemblies.

Both northern and southern leaders have so far publicly stressed the poll will take place before the July 2009 deadline.

Election Updates

Last year, Russia was accused by Amnesty International of violating a United Nations resolution by supplying weapons to Sudan that were used in Darfur, a charge the Russian Foreign Ministry rejected. The United Nations imposed an embargo on the sale and delivery of arms to Darfur in 2004. In Washington, the State Department deputy spokesman, Robert Wood, said the sale was “the last thing that country needs.”

NYTimes.com

Darfur rebels dismissed the moves, saying they don’t trust al-Bashir and want to see disarmament of the feared janjaweed militias before agreeing to a ceasefire.

Al-Bashir’s announcement is part of a high-profile campaign by Khartoum to display its readiness amid attempts to cobble together new Darfur peace negotiations mediated by the Arab nation Qatar and a U.N. envoy. It comes as the Sudanese president is trying to fend off possible genocide charges by the International Criminal Court over atrocities in Darfur.

Up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in the vast region of western Sudan since fighting erupted in early 2003. The war pits troops from the Arab-led Khartoum government against ethnic African rebels, and Khartoum is accused of backing Arab militias known as janjaweed said to have carried out widespread atrocities against ethnic African civilians.

The government has repeatedly called ceasefires in Darfur in the past but they have quickly broken down.

Al-Bashir urged rebels to join Khartoum in peace talks, speaking at a conference of Sudanese political parties, southern Sudanese and some Darfur tribal leaders that he convened to recommend ways to move ahead with peace.

“I am sending a special message to my brothers in the armed movements to come together (with us) for a joint single word, through which we would be able to realize peace … security and stability for our people,” he told the gathering, known as the Darfur National Forum.

He announced his “agreement to an immediate, unconditional ceasefire between the armed forces and the warring factions, provided that an effective monitoring mechanism be put into action and be observed by all involved parties.”

The call appeared to stop short of ordering a unilateral ceasefire by government troops in Darfur.

Al-Bashir promised an “immediate campaign to disarm the militias and restrict the use of weapons among armed groups.” The disarming of the janjaweed has been a top demand of Darfur rebels.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday he welcomed al-Bashir’s ceasefire proposal and intention to disarm the militias.

Ban said in a statement that “the international community continues to have high expectations” that Sudan and rebel movements will make “concrete progress” toward peacefully resolving the conflict.

In another gesture, al-Bashir also said his government is willing to pay compensation to Darfurians who lost their homes to help them return and rebuild. He promised to “empower” the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force that is deployed in Darfur “to carry out its role effectively.”

A top official in the peacekeeping force, known as UNAMID, welcomed the agreement and said the U.N. and Qatar would now approach rebel leaders to try to bring them into a cease-fire.

“The government has put something concrete on the table for discussion. It puts on the table … almost all the issues the rebels have demanded,” Ali Hassan, the head of UNAMID in southern Darfur, told The Associated Press.

But Darfur rebel leaders rejected any immediate ceasefire.

Abdulwahid Elnur, the exiled leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, said the rebels cannot accept any ceasefire until the janjaweed are disarmed.

“We need action not words from them,” he told AP. “It’s not a matter of the ceasefire, it’s a matter of stopping the genocide … We don’t trust these people.”

Suleiman Sandal, a top commander from another main rebel force, the Justice and Equality Movement, said “this government is not serious about peace … and is preparing for war on all fronts.” He rejected any ceasefire unless it was part of a “framework agreement.”

The Associated Press:

Ahmed al-Mirghani was president of Sudan from 1986 to 1989, leading the country’s last democratically elected government, before being overthrown in a coup by current leader Omar al-Bashir.

The funeral also saw the return, after two decades in self-imposed exile, of Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani, the former president’s brother and leader of the powerful Democratic Unionist Party.

Thousands chanted his nickname, Abu Hashem, as they followed the funeral procession from the airport through the city.

The two brothers are heirs of the powerful Mirghania movement — a sect within Sufi Islam that gave birth to the DUP political party.

Ahmed Al-Mirghani went on to live in exile in Egypt until his death at 67 on Sunday.

“This is a man who has been calling for love and peace and who has been working for the Sudan and for the unity of the nation,” Mohammed Sirul Khatim al-Mirghani, a family member, told reporters after the body was brought to the family crypt.

Supporters have flocked to the capital from its power bases in northern and eastern Sudan to attend Wednesday’s burial and the final ceremony set for Friday.

Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani is expected to speak at the ceremony where many will be watching to see if he criticizes the government or stands with al-Bashir.

The president is facing international disfavor, a pending trial on genocide charges with the International Criminal Court over a bloody civil war in the western Darfur region and a fraying peace agreement with the south.

To shore-up support, al-Bashir has been reaching out to former foes like the Mirghani brothers, suggesting a possible return to politics for the DUP, perhaps as an ally of the government.

Al-Bashir met with the DUP leader in Saudi Arabia this weekend to convince him to return to Sudan and take part in the new peace drive organized by the Qatari government.

Hundreds of thousands follow Sudan funeral – Yahoo! News

The ministry blamed the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfur rebel group, for seizing and killing the Chinese. A London-based JEM official denied the group was involved.

“Five were murdered. Two were able to escape with minor injuries,” ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadig said. The two workers who escaped were now in the hands of the government, Sadig said while the kidnappers were still holding the remaining two. “This incident happened without any provocation,” he said.

The government and rebels routinely trade accusations of human rights violations in Darfur, where a bloody conflict has raged since 2003.

The kidnapping was the third such incident in the energy-producing state of South Kordofan in the past year. Analysts say the underdeveloped region, which borders Darfur, could become another violent flashpoint.

The nine workers were snatched near a small oil field where they were doing contract work for the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC). The company is a consortium led by China’s CNPC that also includes India’s ONGC, Malaysia’s Petronas and Sudan’s state-owned Sudapet.

Sadig said the kidnappers had demanded that Chinese oil firms leave the region.

“STRONGLY CONDEMNED”

The Chinese embassy in Khartoum could not be reached for comment, but China’s Xinhua news agency said the embassy “strongly condemned” the killings. China is the biggest foreign investor in Sudan and one of Khartoum’s strongest allies.

El-Tahir el-Feki, a JEM official, said the group had not authorized any attack on Chinese workers.

“Maybe there are elements who say they are members of the group without its knowledge,” he told Reuters.

The Darfur rebel group has said it had forces in the area and warned that oil workers were legitimate military targets.

JEM seized five oil workers — an Egyptian, an Iraqi and three Sudanese — in October 2007 but released them.

Local tribesmen have identified the head of the kidnappers as a man called Fudeili, a member of a sub-clan of the Arab al-Misseriya tribe called Awlad Omran.

Local officials said the kidnappers probably wanted oil money. The consortium produces more than 300,000 barrels of crude per day (bpd) in Sudan’s Blocks 1, 2 and 4. Sudan produces about 500,000 bpd of crude.

Abdul-Rasoul al-Nur, a former governor of Kordofan and a Misseriya leader, said his tribe condemned the killings.

“Even if the demands (of the captors) were just, the wrong methods obstruct reaching those just demands. This is a huge mistake,” he told Reuters.

The International Crisis Group think-tank said last week the a 2005 peace deal that ended two decades of war between north and south Sudan was at risk in South Kordofan “where many of the same ingredients” that produced the Darfur conflict existed.

South Kordofan is inhabited by Arab and African tribes who were mobilized during the north-south war and who remain polarized along tribal and political lines, the group said.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry said Sudanese authorities would take “more security measures” to protect Chinese and foreign workers.

A group of kidnappers seized four Indian oil workers and their Sudanese driver in May. Three men managed to escape and one was released. Another man is believed dead.

Kidnappers kill Chinese hostages in Sudan – Yahoo! News

In October 2004, al-Bashir’s government negotiated an end to the Second Sudanese Civil War, one of the longest-running and deadliest wars of the 20th century, by granting limited autonomy to Southern Sudan. Since then, however, his government has been widely criticised for its role in the Darfur conflict. In July 2008, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court accused al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur, and requested that the court issue a warrant for his arrest.

Background

Al-Bashir was born on January 1, 1944 in the village of Hoshe Bannaga, Sudan, then part of the Kingdom of Egypt and Sudan. He received his primary education there, and his family later moved to Khartoum, where he completed his secondary education. Al-Bashir joined the Sudanese Army at a young age and studied at the Egyptian Military Academy in Cairo. He quickly rose through the ranks and became a paratrooper. Later, al-Bashir served with the Egyptian Army during the October War of 1973. He is a native speaker of the Arabic language

Al-Bashir is married to his cousin Fatma Khalid. He also has a second wife named Widad Babiker, who had a number of children with her first husband, Ibrahim Shamsaddin, member National Salvation Revolution Council, who died in a helicopter crash. Al-Bashir does not have any children of his own.

Military career

When he returned to the Sudan, Al-Bashir was put in charge of military operations against the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in the southern half of the country.[citation needed] Then a colonel, in 1989 Al-Bashir led a group of army officers in ousting the unstable coalition government of Prime Minister Sadeq al-Mahdi. Under Al-Bashir’s leadership, the new military government suspended political parties and introduced an Islamic legal code on the national level. He then became Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation (a newly established body with legislative and executive powers for what was described as a transitional period), and assumed the posts of chief of state, prime minister, chief of the armed forces, and minister of defense.

Governance

Subsequent to Al-Bashir’s promotion to the Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation, he allied himself with Hassan al-Turabi, leader of the National Islamic Front.

On October 16, 1993, Al-Bashir’s powers increased when he was appointed president of the country, after which time the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation was dissolve] The executive and legislative powers of the council were later given to Al-Bashir.[citation needed] He was later elected president (with a five year term) in the 1996 national election. In 1998, Al-Bashir and the Presidential Committee put into effect a new constitution. In 1999, Al-Bashir and the Parliament made a law which allowed limited political associations in opposition to Al-Bashir and his supporters to be formed, although these groups failed to gain any significant access to governmental power.[citation needed] On December 12, 1999, Al-Bashir sent troops and tanks against parliament and ousted Hassan al-Turabi, the speaker of parliament, in a palace coup.

Darfur conflict

As the conflict in the south of Sudan began to subside, a new conflict started in the western province of Darfur in early 2003. About 300,000 people have died and 5 million people have been forced from their homes, and are still under attack from government-backed Janjaweed militia, as reported by the international organizations, but Sudan Government denied, and said that the number of people who were killed in the conflict is not more than 10,000..

The United States Government claimed in September 2004 “that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility and that genocide may still be occurring.” Al-Bashir declared that the government had squashed the rebellion in February 2004, but rebels still operate within the region and the death toll continues to rise. On June 29, 2004, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Al-Bashir in Sudan and urged him to make peace with the rebels, end the crisis, and lift restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Darfur. Kofi Annan met with Al-Bashir three days later and demanded that he disarm the Janjaweed.

In September 2006, Al-Bashir attended the UN General Assembly in New York and asserted that Sudan wants the African Union to stay in Darfur until peace is re-established.[citation needed] Shortly afterwards the AU peace and United Nations Security Council announced that its 7,000 troops would remain until December 31, 2006.[citation needed]

A high-level technical consultation was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 11-12 June 2007, pursuant to the 4 June 2007 letters of the Secretary-General and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, which were addressed to President Omar Al-Bashir. The technical consultations were attended by delegations from the Government of Sudan, the African Union and the United Nations.

International Criminal Court action

On 14 July 2008, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, alleged that al-Bashir bore individual criminal responsibility for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since 2003 in Darfur. The prosecutor accused al-Bashir of having “masterminded and implemented” a plan to destroy the three main ethnic groups, the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa, with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation. The evidence was submitted to three judges who will decide whether to issue an arrest warrant. If formally charged, al-Bashir would be the first sitting head of state charged by the ICC. Bashir has rejected the charges and said, “Whoever has visited Darfur, met officials and discovered their ethnicities and tribes … will know that all of these things are lies.”

Sudan’s government has stated that it won’t recognize the authority and decisions of the ICC. Bashir also said that he remained unflustered by the accusations.

In October 2008 ICC asked the prosecutor for more information to support the charges.

Currency crisis

In the early 1990s, al-Bashir administration gave the green signal to float a new currency called Sudanese Dinar to replace the battered old Sudanese Pound that had lost 90 per cent of its worth during the turbulent 1980s.

But the Sudanese Dinar continued to lose its value like its predecessor throughout his reign due to imprudent financial policies, civil war and economic sanctions. During 1995-2005, the Sudanese Dinar lost almost 80 per cent of its value effectively evaporating the foreign exchange reserves of the government.

In early 2007, al-Bashir administration again announced a new currency called New Sudanese Pound and artificially revalued it upwards exacerbating the crisis and boosting the black market.

Mohamed Abdullah, a commander with a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) headed by Abdel-Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, said his group lost two fighters but captured a number of government vehicles and weapons in the clash on Thursday.

A spokesman for the Sudanese military could not confirm the incident but said the army had troops operating in north Darfur.

Noureddine Mezni, a spokesman for the joint United Nations/African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID), said: “We have initial information about clashes in the area. We are monitoring the situation.” He did not give further details.

The clashes came a week after Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir launched a national initiative to end the five-year-old conflict. Rebel groups boycotted the event.

Suleiman Jamous, a leader of another SLA/Unity group in north Darfur, said both forces clashed when they confronted each other “by accident” on a road near the area of Anabaji.

Abdullah and Jamous said government forces overtook a rebel base in the Helf area in north Darfur on Thursday night.

“There will be retaliation,” Abdullah told Reuters.

International experts estimate that 200,000 have died and 2.5 million fled their homes since mostly African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in 2003, charging it with neglect. The government says 10,000 have lost their lives and accuses the international media of exaggerating the crisis.

Reuters.com