Rebel leader rejects invitation to Ndjamena

Chadian President Idriss Deby this week invited rebel leader Youssouf Togoimi to go to Chad's capital, Ndjamena, to form his own political party, but Togoimi's Mouvement pour la democratie et la justice au Tchad (MJDT) rejected the offer. In an interview with Radio France Internationale (RFI) on Tuesday, Deby said he had stretched out a "brotherly hand" to Togoimi to avoid further bloodshed. "We must leave the cycle of violence and agree in the most sincere and honest possible manner to play a democratic political game for the conquest of power because what Togoimi is doing today has no future," Deby said. But AFP quoted the MJDT as saying in the Gabonese capital Libreville, where the rebel group reportedly has representatives: "The Chadian constitution gives us the right to resist to the end an unscrupulous and bloody dictator. There has never been a democratic process with Deby." Deby's offer came one day after new clashes were reported between government and rebel troops in the northern region of Tibesti. Each side said the other was responsible for the attack. The MJDT began its rebellion in the arid, mountainous north in September 1998.