Issue Date: August 05, 1983
U.S. Increases Aid to Chad, Charges
Libyan Air Attacks
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Reagan Sees Zairean President
AWACS Sent to Egypt
Chad Receives U.S., French Arms
Reagan Sees Zairean President
President Reagan had approved a $15 million increase in the current U.S. $10 million
package of emergency military aid for Chad, the U.S. State Department announced Aug.
4. The decision reflected mounting U.S. concern over the role of Libya in Chad's civil
war and the broader effects that Libyan intervention in Chad could have on the stability
of the region. [See 1983 Chad Charges Libyan Role in Rebel Offensive; U.S., France,
Zaire Back Habre]
The $25 million in U.S. emergency aid to the government of Chadian President Hissene
Habre was available from a $75 million discretionary fund provided under the Foreign
Assistance Act and did not require congressional approval.
The State Department said the newly authorized "$15 million will be used to provide the
government of Chad with a reasonable chance to defend itself against Libyan escalation."
The State Department charged that Libya had moved beyond its previous commitment of
strategic and logistical support to insurgents led by former Chadian President Goukouni
Oueddei. "Libya has initiated the large scale bombing of Chad forces," the State
Department said. "This radically altered the situation and created the need for additional
urgent military assistance."
President Reagan Aug. 4 met with visiting President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire to
discuss the Chad conflict. Following their meeting at the White House, Reagan told
reporters he had "expressed our admiration" for Mobutu's "courageous" initiative in
sending six airplanes and more than 1,500 Zairean troops to bolster government forces in
Chad. A senior administration official who briefed the press said that Reagan and Mobutu
had "agreed it is in their interests, the interests of stability in Africa and in our interest not
to see Libyan aggression against an African state succeed."
AWACS Sent to Egypt
The U.S. Aug. 3 sent two Airborne Warning and Control System surveillance planes to
Egypt in advance of their scheduled arrival for month-long joint military exercises. The
move was widely viewed as one of a series of U.S. warnings to Libya against extending
the conflict in Chad to other countries in the region.
U.S. Defense and State department briefing officers said the AWACS had merely arrived
early for the military exercises. However, unidentified Pentagon sources maintained that
the planes had been dispatched early to counter a perceived Libyan threat to neighboring
countries. They noted that the U.S. had sent AWACS to Egypt in February, apparently to
deter a Libyan threat to the Sudan. [See 1983 U.S. Sends AWACS to Egypt; Libyan
Threat to Sudan Seen]
In what Pentagon sources described as an additional display of U.S. strength in the
region, the U.S. Aug. 3 ordered the aircraft carrier Coral Sea to postpone its scheduled
departure that day from the Mediterranean for naval maneuvers in the Caribbean.
The delayed departure of the Coral Sea coincided with threats reported by the Libyan
press agency, Jana, against another U.S. aircraft carrier, the Eisenhower, currently
stationed 150 miles (240 kilometers) off the Libyan coast. The Libyan air force had been
ordered to "destroy" the Eisenhower if it entered the Gulf of Sidra, Jana reported. U.S.
State Department spokesman John Hughes disputed Libya's claim to possess territorial
rights to the entire gulf and affirmed the U.S. "right to operate in international waters."
In a brief confrontation Aug. 1, two U.S. Navy F14 fighter planes from the Eisenhower
intercepted two Libyan warplanes over the gulf. The Libyan planes retreated without any
resistance.
Chad Receives U.S., French Arms
The U.S. Aug. 3 announced that it had sent antiaircraft weapons and three military
advisers to Chad to counter intensified Libyan air attacks on the strategically-situated
northern city of Faya-Largeau. The U.S. announcement followed a statement by France
the previous day confirming that French antiaircraft weapons had arrived in Chad.
U.S. Defense Department officials Aug. 3 said the advisers would train Chadian soldiers
in the use of 30 U.S. Redeye and Stinger shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles. The officials
said the weapons were necessary to counter daily Libyan bombings of Faya-Largeau,
which Chadian government troops had recaptured July 30 from Libyan-backed
insurgents. Previous U.S. military aid to Chad, as announced July 18 by President
Reagan, had consisted of food and nonlethal military equipment.
State Department spokesman John Hughes Aug. 3 charged that Libya had escalated its
raids on Faya-Largeau, causing heavy military and civilian casualties. According to
Western medical reports from the area, burns on bombing victims indicated that
phosphorus bombs had been used in the air raids.
Hughes Aug. 3 said the U.S. believed that recent reports that Chadian President Habre
had died in fighting at Faya-Largeau were "incorrect." However, Hughes acknowledged
that the U.S. did not know for certain whether Habre was alive.
(The government of Chad Aug. 2 had denied a Libyan press report earlier that day that
Habre had been killed by artillery fire. "It's not the first time the Libyans have announced
that we are all dead," Chadian Foreign Minister Idriss Miskine declared.)
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Zairean President." Facts On File World News Digest 5 Aug. 1983. World News
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