By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/chad1unhum111209.html
UNITED NATIONS, November 12 -- In Abeche in Eastern Chad in early October, a security officer of the UN Mission in Chad, MINURCAT, was shot at as she came out of the Mission's headquarters. This incident, scarcely reported at the UN in New York, was described to Inner City Press by Michele Falavigna, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Chad, in response to a question about another killing in the country. Falavigna asked, "Was it deliberate provocation?" Video here, from Minute 23:23.
Inner City Press asked Falavigna about a refugee camp near the border with Sudan which the government and now UN are trying to move. Falavigna said because it is near the border, the men go back to tend their fields in Sudan, and return at night. He also described the janjaweed militias coming across the border, twenty on horseback "with heavy weapons," hard to track. This too is not much discussed at the UN in New York.
Even less discussed are elections in Chad, where Idriss Deby took power by a coup but now enjoys support from France and the UN to stay in power. Falavigna said that unless amendments are made to the peace agreement and electoral code, there can be no election in 2010. Which is just how Deby likes it.
