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GV Chad Embassy in Khartoum (2 shots)
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CU Chad Ambassador Mohammed Abdel Karim speaks French
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Initials PM





Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: INTRODUCTION: Last year's civil war in Chad ended only after Libyan Forces intervened to support the government of Goukone Oueddei. But the Opposition under Hissene Habre has survived and regrouped. Now Chad's Ambassador in the Sudan, Mohammed Abdel Karim, has said he no longer recognises his own government and he has attacked Libya's role in supporting it.

SYNOPSIS: Mr. Karim has said that he intends to go on running the embassy in the Sudan even though he wants the overthrow of his own government. The Sudanese President Mr. Nimieri has been one of Africa's foremost critics of Libyan involvement in Chad, a subject which has split the members of the Organisation of African Unity. Mr. Karim said that Libya occupies Chad, and that he does not expect it to stop there. He maintains that Libya had entered chad as the first stage in a plan to destabilise her neighbouring states. Mr. Karim points out that Libya has an abundance of military arms, tanks and planes. And so far as the Libyans are helped by Soviet technicians, they too were responsible for the situation in chad. Mr. Karim was echoing fears, also expressed by the Sudanese government, that Libya's involvement in Chad may represent a threat to Sudan itself. The American government has gone so far as to offer assistance to any African state opposing what it describes as "Libyan adventures" in Africa. In Chad itself, the Oueddei government emphasises that the Libyans entered the country at their request. There have been reports that Colonel Gaddafi is prepares to withdraw his troops. But for the moment the troops remain. The Libyans argue that if they withdraw from Chad too early the peace which they say they have brought about may be threatened. But according to Mr. Karim, Chad's ambassador, Libya is an occupying force in his country. This, he said, is clear and everyone knows it.