France defends Chad military takeover as needed to ensure stability

By John Irish
PARIS, April 22 (Reuters) - France's foreign minister on
Thursday defended a military takeover in Chad despite objections
from the opposition there, saying it was necessary for security
amid "exceptional circumstances".
The son of Chad's slain leader Idriss Deby took over as
president and armed forces commander on Wednesday and dissolved
the government and parliament as rebel forces threatened to
march on the capital.
Under the constitution, the speaker of the National Assembly
should have become interim president. But after the military had
already shut down parliament, speaker Haroun Kabadi said in a
statement that "given the military, security and political
context", he had agreed to a military transition "with full
lucidity".
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Kabadi's
position justified the military taking control.
"There are exceptional circumstances," Le Drian told France
2 television. "Logically, it should be Mr Kabadi...but he
refused because of the exceptional security reasons that were
needed to ensure the stability of this country."
Chad's political opposition has denounced the military's
takeover, as did an army general who said he spoke for many
officers. Labour unions called for a workers' strike.
Idriss Deby was killed on the frontlines of a battle against
rebels who had invaded from the north. An authoritarian ruler
for more than 30 years, he was nonetheless a lynchpin in
France's security strategy in Africa.
France has about 5,100 troops based across the region as
part of international operations to fight Islamist militants,
including its main base in N'Djamena.
Any instability in Chad, which has the region's best-trained
and most battled-hardened troops, would harm efforts to fight
Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin and groups linked to al Qaeda
and Islamic State in the Sahel.
Deby's son, General Mahamat Idriss Deby, said on Wednesday
the army wanted to return power to a civilian government and
hold free and democratic elections in 18 months.
"We know that the military and France forced his hand,"
Yacine Abderamane Sakine, president of the Reformist Party, told
Reuters. "The argument that the president of the National
Assembly is old and sick is not credible."
This had been a coup d'etat transferring power from father
to son, he said.
Le Drian, who will travel with President Emmanuel Macron on
Friday for Deby's funeral and to hold talks with the military
council, made no mention of the 18-month time frame.
He said the priority was for the military council to play
the main role in ensuring stability and then turn its attention
to a peaceful and transparent transition to democracy.
"It's the moment for it to be done when the security of the
country has really been established," Le Drian said.
He did not expect Chadian troops to pullout from operations
elsewhere in the Sahel region.
The rebels, the Libyan-based Front for Change and Concord in
Chad, a group formed by dissident army officers, rejected the
military's plan and said on Wednesday that a pause in
hostilities they are observing to give time for Deby to be
buried would end at midnight.