Chad Leader Declares State Of Emergency

Chad's president declared a nationwide state of emergency, telling his citizens that tightened controls were needed to restore order after recent rebel attacks.

In a speech broadcast on national radio and television on Thursday, President Idriss Deby said he had signed a decree that would increase the government's powers for 15 days, starting Friday, as allowed in Chad's constitution.

Deby said the decree instituted "important and urgent measures to maintain order, guarantee stability and assure the good functioning of the state."

The text announced "a state of emergency throughout the territory of the Republic of Chad."

The declaration gives extra powers to regional governors to control the movement of people and vehicles, bans most meetings, allows the government to control what is published in the media, and institutes a midnight to 6 a.m. curfew.

"These are exceptional measures, but I must do this to assure the regular functioning of the state," Deby said, calling on regional governors to "mobilize all their means - human and material - to help restore public order."

After 15 days, Chad's national assembly can decide whether to allow an extension of the state of emergency.

Rebels from eastern Chad attacked the capital, N'Djamena, on Feb. 2-3. After a weekend of fighting in which clashes reached the gate of the presidential palace, Chad's army repelled the rebels from N'Djamena and pursued them eastward toward the Sudanese border.

Earlier Thursday, French officials said the rebels were hovering around the town of Goz Beida, a region where European Union peacekeepers are to deploy over the next three months for a peacekeeping mission to protect refugees from Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

The former colonial power acknowledged Thursday that it had delivered munitions from Libya and other countries to Chad's army during the fighting - illustrating the strength of France's backing for Deby.

French authorities have said that when Chad's government forces ran short of munitions for Soviet-made tanks, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi provided them. France did not have such munitions.

French authorities maintain that their forces did not take part in the combat, only providing the national army with logistical and intelligence support.

Military spokesman Cmdr. Christophe Prazuck told reporters Thursday that French troops did fire about 10 times, but only in self-defense. Rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades against French military positions near N'Djamena airport, and French troops responded with "proportionate" firepower to repel them, he said.

During the fighting, French troops guarded the airport that was vital as the base for the helicopter gunships that allowed Chad's military to shoot the rebels out of N'Djamena. The rebels have no air power. France has some 1,900 troops in N'Djamena.

Even before the decree, the Chadian government had started very publicly reasserting its control in the capital. On Wednesday, the government paraded 135 alleged rebel prisoners, some said to be as young as 15, charging they were Sudanese mercenaries paid by neighboring Sudan and al Qaeda fighters. The government produced little evidence to bolster its charges.

Sudan and Chad regularly trade accusations that the other is supporting its rebel foes. Analysts say each country supports rebels hostile to the other.

Deby also said that he was releasing funds for Chad's 2008 budget, which had been held up during the fighting, and loosening certain government spending controls to ensure that services and business transactions are able to continue.

The Chadian government has also been conducting house-to-house searches to arrest rebels it says still are hiding in the capital.

"In the Chagoua quarter, near my home, all the shopowners had to submit to searches yesterday," said Gaston Wazoune, a university student in N'Djamena.

Chadian Interior Minister Mahamat Ahmat Bachir also said the government was opening a judicial inquiry into the whereabouts of three opposition leaders reportedly arrested during the attack on the capital, saying it was possible they were only in hiding. Bachir had earlier confirmed the arrests of the politicians, who rights groups have said were being held at Deby's headquarters.

Late Thursday, France said its Ambassador Bruno Foucher was allowed to visit opposition leader Lol Mahamat Choua in a military prison in the capital. Foucher also was assured that the International Committee of the Red Cross would be allowed to visit Choua on Friday. The French statement did not mention the other detained politicians.