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Chad vows raids 'to seek rebels' | Chad vows raids 'to seek rebels' |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Chad's government says it will continue house-to-house searches to seek rebels in the capital, N'Djamena, following a coup attempt earlier this month. | |
A BBC correspondent says the raids have terrorised parts of N'Djamena. | A BBC correspondent says the raids have terrorised parts of N'Djamena. |
Interior Minister Mahamat Ahmat Bachir was speaking after dozens of alleged rebels, many of them children, were paraded in front of journalists. | Interior Minister Mahamat Ahmat Bachir was speaking after dozens of alleged rebels, many of them children, were paraded in front of journalists. |
He also said an enquiry had begun into the whereabouts of three missing opposition leaders. | |
The three, who include former President Lol Mahamat Choua, disappeared while rebels were attacking the city. | The three, who include former President Lol Mahamat Choua, disappeared while rebels were attacking the city. |
The opposition say they were seized by government soldiers but the government says they went missing from parts of the city controlled by the rebels. | |
The rebels were repulsed from the city. | The rebels were repulsed from the city. |
Dishevelled | |
Mr Bachir said those alleged rebels who were under 18 would not get special treatment, calling them "child mercenaries", not child soldiers. | |
He said the house-to-house raids would continue until all the rebels had been found. | |
"Anyone who hides a rebel will be treated as a rebel." | |
The BBC's Stephanie Hancock in N'Djamena says many refugees who have fled Chad say they are too scared to return home. | |
She says some fear that a government crackdown on those accused of supporting or sympathising with the rebels is getting out of hand. | |
Those alleged rebels already caught were forced to sit in rows as journalists were invited to film and photograph them in a compound in the capital's police headquarters. | |
Our correspondent says they looked dishevelled and exhausted and many were painfully thin. | |
In a separate room injured prisoners lay on a bare, concrete floor. Many had intravenous drips inserted, hanging from a string on the ceiling. | |
Mr Bachir said many of them were Sudanese - Khartoum has denied Chad's accusations that it backs the rebels. | |
'Kidnapped' | |
On Wednesday, former colonial power France and human rights group Amnesty International expressed their concern over the fate of the missing opposition leaders. | |
The other two are opposition alliance spokesman Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh and veteran Ngarlejy Yorongar. | |
"They were kidnapped by about 15 soldiers from the presidential guard," a spokesman for Mr Choua's Assembly for Democracy and Progress said, reports the AFP news agency. | |
A European Union peacekeeping force is due to arrive in Chad this month to protect refugees who have fled the Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan. | A European Union peacekeeping force is due to arrive in Chad this month to protect refugees who have fled the Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan. |
Their deployment of the 4,000-strong force was delayed by the rebel attacks. | Their deployment of the 4,000-strong force was delayed by the rebel attacks. |