Ex-rebels deny responsibility for politician's death

A former rebel group, the MDJT, has denied responsibility for the death of a politician on Sunday in northern Chad, Africa Number One, a radio station based in Gabon reported on Tuesday. African Democratic Party leader Mahamat Gueti was killed when his car detonated a land mine near the northern town of Faya Largeau as he visited polling stations during Sunday's legislative elections. Interior Minister Abdrahmane Moussa attributed his death to a terrorist act and announced the arrest of an unspecified number of people, among them two members of the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT - French abbreviation). Gueti's party was part of a coalition opposed to the ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement, led by President Idriss Deby, who seized power in December 1990 and won elections in 1996 and 2001. The MDJT waged a war against the government for three years until the two sides signed a peace agreement in January 2002. Its rebellion was limited to northern Chad, an area littered with land mines planted during decades of armed conflict.