Dear Editor
Dear Editor Qaddafi and Chad Russell Warren Howe's "Qaddafi Dreams of Empire" (NL, September 5) must surely rank among the very worst reporting on the recent crisis in Chad. While the author...
...4. The nomads of the eastern Sahara are virtually all of Tuareg origin (see the works of the great Ovford historian E.W...
...4. The fact that the Libyan leader is of nomadic descent does not make him a Tuareg...
...Comparing Qaddafi to Jerry Falwell or the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is not merely superficial...
...5. Qaddafi has never based his territorial claims on the argument that "everywhere the Tuareg of the Sahara roam belongs to Libya...
...After noting that Qaddafi defies facile analysis, Howe should have kept his own warning in mind...
...And his first name was Francois, not Felix...
...Paris' main purpose was to support the ruling Chad Progressive Party in the South against Moslem opposition...
...Frolinat, the liberation organization that eventually split into pro- and anti-Libyan factions led by Goukouni Oueddei and Hissen Habre, respectively, is an example...
...is business as usual" in that country anyway is repugnant...
...2. Vandewaile is correct that Tombalbaye's first name was Francois, and that I confused it with Mal-loum's, but how Tombalbaye could not be a Christian if he was a Protestant escapes me...
...The most recent census showed only 3 per cent of the population to be Tuareg, the smallest figure for any of the countries where that people takes up lodging...
...3. Qaddafi replaced the banks with government institutions that do not pay inierest...
...While the author refers to himself as a student of African history, his numerous factual errors make his knowledge highly suspect...
...More important, Howe's urging that the Africans should be left alone to settle the Chadian matter by assuring us that "decades of warfare...
...2. President Tombalbaye, despite his affiliation with the South, was not a Christian but a Protestant...
...Bovill, among others...
...Nor is Libya the "quin-tessemially Tuareg, Saharan nation...
...A similar situation exists in Morocco, where a large portion of the population is of Berber stock, but only remnants employ the Berber tongue...
...7. To say that Qaddafi's Auzu claim is religious, not tribal, is a contradiction, since the tribes in question are Moslem...
...it indicates a deep misunderstanding of the nature of contemporary Islamic resurgence...
...5. As for the census figure cited by Vandewaile, my guess is that ii refers to the percentage of ihe Libyan population that still considers the aboriginal language of the Tuaregs its mother tongue...
...New York City Dirk Vandewaile Middle East Institute Columbia University Russell Warren Howe replies: 1. French forces remained to help the Tombalbaye government against its various, divided opponents, who were concentrated in the "Moslem north...
...6. The territory Qaddafi covets in northern Chad, Mali and Niger is 99 per cent Moslem...
...7. Libya's assertion of dominion over the Au2u Strip was not based on a tribal claim, but on religious affiliation and the location of Italian and French colonial borders...
...It both belittles Africans' attitudes toward a war in their midst and shows an insensitivity to efforts at conciliation now taking place in France...
...6. Most of the land Qaddafi covets is not "as Moslem as he is...
...He was deposed by former Chief of Staff Felix Malloum...
...Of course, the overwhelming majority of Libyans converse in Arabic...
...Aside from his many inaccuracies, several of Howe's interpretations are at best questionable...
...Even in Chad opposition to Tripoli has materialized along secular lines...
...3. Although Muammar Qaddafi instituted substantial changes in the operations of Libya's banks, he did not dissolve them...
...Jusi a quick rundown: 1. Contrary to Howe's assertions, France did not stay in Chad after 1960 to maintain order among the Moslem chieftains in the North...
...The split there among the Moslems did not appear until the 1970s...
Vol. 66 • November 1983 • No. 21
