Chadian National Inclusive Dialogue Postponed Indefinitely

The Chadian National Inclusive Dialogue scheduled to begin on Tuesday May 10, 2022 has been postponed indefinitely, HumAngle can report.

This third postponement of the dialogue is at the instance of host country, Qatar, which has been playing the role of mediator in the pre-dialogue talks that have been holding in Doha, the capital since March 13, 2022.

In a statement made public on Wednesday, May 4, representatives of the three politico-military groups present in Doha saluted the initiative by Qatar concerning the demand by the groups for the postponement of the National Inclusive and Sovereign Dialogue but hoped that the postponement would not serve as pretext for the extension of the transitional period by the military junta in N’Djamena.

The politico-military armed groups called for the involvement of all the political actors in the national inclusive dialogue and expressed their “attachment to the legitimate aspirations of the Chadian people for real peace”.

Meanwhile, certain leaders of political parties claimed the former ruling party, the Mouvement Patriotique du Salut (MPS), was behind the postponement, while others argued the junta had bowed to pressure from international lending organisations.

But the MPS have rejected the allegations and speculations by the opposition parties insisting that political upmanship does not pay.

The various political actors in the country are having diverse views about the inclusive national dialogue.

“Those who seized power after the death of President Deby are behaving more and more as people waiting for Godot. Nobody is seeing all that they promise on the ground,” said Max Kemkoye, President of the Union des Democrates pour le Developpement et le Progres (UDP).

Kemkoye said the international community through the African Union (AU) had demanded that the dialogue be organised within three months from when the junta took power, but since then, nothing has happened.

“After several postponements and assurances by the president of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) that the dialogue would hold on May 10, here we are with another postponement and this time around, without a new date, excusing that it is at the instance of the Qataris, the mediators,” he said.

This new alteration of the date, according to the opposition leader, is a clear indication that “The TMC doubts the effects of the dialogue because after this dialogue, we are going to participate in the re-composition of the political forces namely, the reform of the army to make it sincerely republican which they fear”.

“This fear is because if certain politico-military persons such as Mahdi, Timan Erdimi, Bichara Idriss Haggar etc return to the country after the Doha accord, people are going to fear permanent and perpetual plots whereas they will no longer be a problem for the country. And it is because of this that people don’t want the success of the pre-dialogue in Doha.”

Jean-Bernard Padare, spokesperson of the former ruling party, the MPS, on his part sees bad faith in the declarations of the opposition.

“Let people be careful if they don’t have solid arguments to support their theses. First of all, all the parties are working with the Transitional Military Council because it is said that we are in a transitional period,” Padare said.

“While the MPS has on its part stopped working with the TMC in order to guarantee the peace and security of the country, people who think they have won in advance are trying to hold negative arguments.”