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Tragic Tradeoffs: Democracy and Security in Chad

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

William F. S. Miles
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Extract

Anarchic tendencies in Chad serve as a cautionary example of what the on-going reconfiguration of Africa may entail. Interim institutions of government set up by a Sovereign National Conference, which was convened two years after the downfall of the despotic régime of Hissène Habré in December 1990, have generated deep disappointment. Democratisation has proceeded fitfully. The economy remains stagnant. Strikes in the public sector reflect the ‘social crisis’. Worst of all, the security situation has deteriorated substantially and the state is suffering from a severe lack of authority.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 1995 , pp. 53 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

1 For background on the colonial and post-independence eras, see Decalo, Samuel, ‘Regionalism, Political Decay, and Civil Strife in Chad’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 18, 1, 03 1980, pp. 23–56,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and ‘Chad: the roots of centre-periphery strife’, in African Affairs, (London), 79, 317, 10 1980, pp. 490–509;Google ScholarLemarchand, René, ‘The Politics of Sara Ethnicity: a note on the origins of the civil war in Chad’, in Cahiers d'études africaines (Paris), 80, 1980, pp. 449–71,Google Scholar and ‘Chad: the misadventures of the North—South dialectic’, in African Studies Review (Atlanta), 29, 3, 09 1986, pp. 27–41;Google Scholar and Collelo, Thomas (ed.), Chad: a country study (Washington, DC, 1990),Google Scholar US Government Area Handbook Series. More recent studies include: Foltz, William, ‘From Habré to Déby: the search for political order in Chad’, African Studies Center Conference (Research Group on Francophone Africa) on ‘Brazzaville+50’, Boston University, 1994,Google Scholar as well as Reyna, S. P., ‘Unimagined States: the case of Chad in comparative context’, New York Academy of Sciences Conference,New York,1994,Google Scholar and ‘Domination in the Absence of Means’, in Bond, George C. and Vincent, Joan (eds.), Paths of Violence: destruction and deconstruction in African states (New York, 1995).Google Scholar

2 See Buijtenhuijs, Robert, La Conférence nationale souveraine du Tchad (Paris, 1993), for a first hand account and preliminary analysis of the CNS.Google Scholar

3 For example, Groupe d'étude et de recherche sur la Démocratie et le développement économique et social', La Démocratisation par le hout. De la Conféence nationale sourveraine à la transition (N'Djaména, Centre d'études et de formation pour le développement, 1993).Google Scholar

4 Economist Intelligence Unit Country Report: Cameroon, CAR, Chad (London), 4th Quarter, 1994, p. 37.Google Scholar

5 Ibid. 1st and 3rd Quarters, 1994; Amnesty International Report, 1994 (London, 1994), pp. 92–5;Google Scholar and US Department of State, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1993 (Washington, DC, 1994), pp. 52–9.Google Scholar

6 Colonel Abbas Koty was killed during his arrest for plotting a coup only six days after signing an agreement with the Déby Government in October 1993. The aforementioned ethnic groups and clans are all Northern and belie the simplistic misconception of an overarching North—South cleavage.

7 Economist Intelligence Unit Country Report, 1st Quarter, 1994, p. 37.Google Scholar

8 Ibid. 4th Quarter, 1994, pp. 34 and 39. According to Hardy, Benjamin, ‘What Can Oil Do for Troubled Chad?’, in CSIS Africa Notes (Washington, DC), 159, 1994, p. 6, in order to cushion the immediate shock of the devaluation, France forgave Chad's debt, raised producer prices for cotton, limited price increases on essential commodities, and supported a modest salary increase in the civil service.Google Scholar

9 For a recent analysis of the oil factor in Chadian politics, see ibid. pp. 1–9.

10 Ibid. p. 9.