Word: gaddafi
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Outside forces, however, were more aggressively interested in the outcome. Oueddei was actively backed by his neighbor to the north, Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, who had previously seized a swatch of disputed borderland. Chad seemed to fit neatly into the Libyan leader's ultimate dream of a sub-Saharan republic. Habré, meanwhile, was less directly supported by France, as part of Paris' abiding policy of trying to maintain a forceful role in the affairs of the French-speaking former African colonies...
...Gaddafi proved to be not only closer to Chad but also more anxious to break the stalemate. Terming it "technical and humanitarian assistance," the Libyan leader dispatched a sizable military force into Chad last week, which all but ended the civil war. The Libyan invasion force included more than 4,000 infantry, backed by 50 Soviet-supplied T-54 and T-55 tanks, along with 122-mm rocket launchers, 81-mm mortars and even U.S.-built Chinook helicopters. Against such unexpected fire power, Habré's forces retreated across the Chari River into Cameroon. Two days later Habr...
...French government, taken by surprise, weakly insisted that it had not intervened militarily to counter Gaddafi's invasion of Chad because neither of the two cornerstones of French African policy had been violated. No French nationals were in jeopardy or in need of rescue, and no plea for French military help had come from a legitimate government. "We are just spectators," said a French spokesman. More pointedly, the Paris daily Le Monde called the invasion "a serious defeat for Paris," adding that "the French government was visibly caught on the wrong foot...
Chad's African neighbors were even less sanguine about Gaddafi's invasion. Said Senegal's daily Le Soleil, summing up a common view: "All Africa should be concerned. Chad could be the first link in a United States of the Sahel sought by Libya...
...energy producers have been squabbling among themselves all year. Saudi Arabia and Libya broke off diplomatic relations last October when Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi urged Muslims not to make their annual pilgrimage to Mecca because he claimed that the shrine had been desecrated by U.S. radar surveillance planes flying overhead. And after the outbreak of the war between Iran and Iraq, the cartel had to cancel a gala meeting in Baghdad in November that was to have celebrated the group's 20th anniversary...