Conflict Stirs Up Confusion On Border of Chad, Sudan

Humanitarian workers from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said some of the Chadians want to live in the refugee camps. But because they are displaced people in their own country, they cannot be classified as refugees.

"If it wasn't totally out of control before, it certainly is now," Matthew Conway, a UNHCR spokesman, said as he looked at a group of Chadians living under trees. "There are many who have been seriously attacked. There is also a very poor population who may come in and want even a bowl or a plastic mat or bucket to help improve their lives."

Meanwhile, the Sudanese refugees, whose villages were burned when the Darfur conflict began, wonder where they can go next.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Fatih Younis Haroon, 39, a former clerk who fled Darfur two years ago with his five children.

While the civilians languish in misery, the war has entered the digital revolution. Rebels prefer a text message 15 minutes before arranging a satellite phone interview, and their plans are posted on a Web site in French.

The rebel commanders issue orders from satellite phones in Sudan, while the high-ranking leaders dash off daily e-mails from hideaways in Paris. One of Deby's nephews, Tom Erdimi, who had a falling out with the president last year, organizes a separate rebel movement from his house in Texas.

Chadian human rights groups say Deby is using the rebel attack to distract attention from serious domestic issues of corruption and desperate poverty. In an interview at his campaign headquarters, the president said the word "rebel" should not be used to characterize his opponents.

"Sudan mercenaries are what they are," he said. "There is not a rebellion in Chad. This is an invasion by Sudan."

Deby, who is seeking to extend his 16-year rule in elections May 3, said Chad was not experiencing any internal problems and denied any disputes within his family. "Sudan wants to export its fundamentalism and genocide to Chad and the whole of central Africa," he said.

Rebel leaders acknowledge that they are operating from Darfur. Some of the rebels arrested after their coup attempt told African Union investigators Sunday that one of the main Chadian rebel leaders, Mahamat Nour, an ex-army captain, was recruiting young boys from refugee camps in Darfur and fighters from Central African Republic.

"The Sudanese do not disturb us," Albissaty Saleh Allazam, a spokesman for an umbrella rebel group, wrote in an e-mail. "Because Sudan lost assurance in Deby who created part of the conflict of Darfur. In a word, Sudan chose neutrality. If neutrality means support, so, Sudan backed us."

The villagers along the border worry that the rebels, the Janjaweed, bandits or mercenaries will attack again, but they say their village has always been vulnerable to such violence. Koukou Angarana, translated loosely, means, "Your grandmother is telling you to watch out, take care." The border between Sudan and Chad, they say, is a very dangerous place.

Researcher Robert Thomason in Washington contributed to this report.