NDJAMENA , 14 February 2008 (IRIN) - Around 135 rebels captured when they attacked the Chadian capital N'djamena in early February were displayed by Chadian police on 13 February, some of whom were identified as children.

"Among these prisoners there are minors," Interior Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir, said during a press conference.

He added that the children cannot be released at the moment. "These young people have embarked on this path [of being child combatants] so you cannot return them to their villages yet. They need to be re-educated to change their way of thinking."

IRIN contacted the UN Children's Agency (UNICEF) in N'djamena for comment but a spokeswoman said the agency's staff members were only beginning to return to the city having been evacuated earlier in the month during the fighting.

"All I can say for now is that if it involves children then UNICEF is also going to be involved," Cifora Monier, the spokeswoman, said.

Chad's government has also recruited children into its ranks, according to UNICEF and human rights groups. In recent months, Chadians say the army has been forcibly recruiting men and boys in N'djamena and other towns, giving them minimal training before shipping them out to fronts in the east. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75879

In December 2007, UNICEF told IRIN that one of its programmes to demobilise child soldiers from the Chadian army had been cancelled by the government. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76001

Hunt continues

Chad's interior minister said security forces are continuing to look for rebels and their accomplices in N'djamena who are still in hiding. "We will continue the house-to-house searches and find those mercenaries," he said.

His key message was not about the use of child soldiers in the country's brutal fighting, but that many of the prisoners were from Sudan. Many, he said, are "radical Muslims".

"Our defence forces captured all of these Islamic mercenaries in the pay of Sudan. You have identity cards… Some are from Islamic groups; some are from Al Qaeda," he said.

"They were sent by [Sudan's President] Umar Al-Bashir [and] al Qaeda not only to destabilise Chad but the whole of Africa," he said.

Sudan's government has denied that it is backing the rebels in Chad or that it is in league with al Qaeda.

Political disappearances

Regarding widespread reports that Chad's government had recently rounded up political opponents who have since disappeared, the minister said a judicial inquiry into the matter began on 12 February.

France, the former colonial power in Chad, had recently called for clarification of the whereabouts of the politicians.

The minister said it was "already clear" that the rebels, not the government, were responsible for the opposition leaders disappearing. "These people were arrested when their homes were under the control of mercenaries. We only learned of their arrests on the radio," he said.

"It is not known if they were arrested [by the rebels] or if they are hidden somewhere [with the rebels]," he said.

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