By Stephanie Hancock

N'DJAMENA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Chad's security forces on Friday detained a prominent newspaper director after he wrote an article calling President Idriss Deby a "war criminal", one of his colleagues said on Friday.

Nadjikimo Benoudjita, publication director of the weekly independent Notre Temps, was taken from his home in the capital N'Djamena by armed men who arrived in four vehicles, the paper's editor, Nguemadji Djimasngar, said.

"His family were told he was being taken to the main police station. However, we went there and he is not there, so we now think he has been taken to the National Security Agency, or to the Intelligence Department," he added.

Communication Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor confirmed the detention of Benoudjita, who is also head of the Association of Private Press Editors in Chad. But he offered no explanation.

The detention followed the publication this week in Notre Temps' latest edition of an article by Benoudjita accusing Deby of responsibility for the deaths of 25,000 people killed over nine years after he took power in a 1990 revolt in the east.

"Idriss Deby Itno, even if he is not guilty of genocide, can at least be labelled a war criminal," the article said.

Djimasngar said it was "very possible" this was the reason for Benoudjita's detention, "given the content of the article".

"But until we are given an official reason we just don't know," he said.

The Private Press Editors' Association that Benoudjita heads condemned his detention and demanded his immediate release.

A state of emergency, which gives the government powers to control the press, is still in force mostly in eastern Chad, where Deby's army has since last month fought several major battles with rebel groups seeking to topple him.

Critics have accused Deby, who is from the Zaghawa clan that lives in both Chad and Sudan, of ruling like a despot and favouring his clanspeople over other ethnic groups.

Benoudjita's article in Notre Temps, which accused Deby of carrying out exterminations on the basis of ethnicity, also criticised French President Nicolas Sarkozy for supporting Deby's government in the former French colony.

France's military has a contingent of troops and Mirage jets stationed in Chad under a bilateral defence treaty and French troops will compose the bulk of a European Union peacekeeping force that is expected to deploy in east Chad in mid-January. (Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

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