Idriss Deby
President of Chad
President Idriss Deby was elected on July 3, 1996 with 69,09% of the voices, preceding Abdelkader Wadal Kamougue (30,91%). He was the candidate of his party, the popular Movement of hello (MPS).
Born in 1952 in Fada (north-eastern of Chad) from a father shepherd, it is a
Moslem of the ethnos group Zaghawa , a branch of the Gorane group which one
finds on the two sides of the border tchado-Sudanese woman. After having passed
its baccalaureat, it made the school of officers of Djaména, then
obtained in 1976 a licence of professional pilot in France.
Of return to Chad, it collaborates with the rebel Hissène Habre who
drives out capacity in 1982 Goukouni Weddeye , then supported by Libya.
Hissène Habre names it ordering as a head of the army tchadienne. In
1985, it follows the courses of the School of War to Paris and obtains, with its
return, the station of advising military of president Habre. In 1989, nothing
goes any more between the two men. In April, shown plot, and fearing to be
stopped, Idriss Deby, his/her cousin Hassan Djamous who replaced it at the post
of commander as a head, and his/her half-brother Ibrahim Itno, Minister of
Interior Department, flee of the capital. Djamous is killed but Deby succeeds in
gaining Libya, then Sudan, where it created an army, the patriotic Movement of
Hello (MPS). December 1, 1990, its forces seize Djaména and do not drive
out Hissène Habré which takes refuge in Senegal.
As of its catch of being able, it promises elections, without indicating a
formal calendar of it. When it drives out Hissène Habré, person in
charge for thousands for executions summary and extrajudiciaires, the hope
returns. But with the wire of time, the "Déby mode" will make
to him also considerable violations of the humans right, in the line of the
preceding mode. Djaména is severely pinned besides in report/ratio 1994
of Amnesty International.
October 13, 1991, a "attempt at putsch" sees the departure of its old
right arm, colonel Maldom Abbas , supported by ten political leaders and
soldiers belonging for the majority to the Hadjaraï ethnos group. It was
about a first conflict of division of the capacity, between Hadjaraï (ethnos
group of colonel Maldom Abbas) and Zaghawa (ethnos group of president Idriss
Deby). At the time, several hundreds of Hadjaraï soldiers had deserted the
army.
January 92, Maldom Abbas, released, was propelled, with the presidency of the
provisional Council of the Republic.
Abbas Koty Yacoub , stopped on October 22, 1993 was carried out by members of
the republican Guard, under the eyes of its close relations, according to
Amnesty International, without it opposing least resistance. One suspected it of
preparing a coup d'etat. Abbas Koty Yacoub had however returned in Djaména
following an agreement with the government, guaranteeing freedom of movement of
the members of its movement.
In February 92, the army controlled by Zaghawa carries out a sévére
repression out of ground "Southerner", so much so that Paris launches
a public warning by announcing the withdrawal of its aerial cover to Chad,
installation within the framework of device Epervier the safety.
This same month, the vice-president of the League tchadienne of the humans right,
Me Joseph Behidi , was mysteriously assassinated.
Then the national Conference in 1993 came, which decides creation of a Parliament of transition, baptized higher Conseil of transition (CST). In fact the CST names and demolishes the Prime Ministers. The CST being in fact controlled by the MPS of president Déby, not badly of them will pass, keeping all a deep rancour with respect to the president. In this play of musical chair, Idriss Déby, the soldier, is fine policy. It plays learnedly of alliances while making enter to the government its opponents one day old, creating each time a disorder in the rows of the opposition more divided than ever. Even strategy with the movements politico-soldiers. If the Conference of Franceville , which was held at the beginning of 1996, in Gabon to open the dialogue with the rebels, did not really succeed, the president can be prided to have to sow zizanie once again, at the same time in the camp of the political parties "legal" and in the camp of the rebels, some having agreed to return in the row. This Conference was also a gesture "préélectoral", so that one cannot reproach the "candidate-prèsident" for having refused the dialogue with the rebellion.
Extremely of the electoral victory of his party at the time of legislative of 1997, to try to calm the political play definitively, and, especially, to ensure a certain stability essential to the oil prospection in the South of the country, president Déby made enter to the government a pleiad of former opponents, making even elect like chair of the French National Assembly, his old adversary with presidential, colonel Abdelkader Kamougue.