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Chad won't expel refugees, U.N. official says

Chadian President Idriss Deby speaks to supporters Saturday in the capital of N'Djamena.

• Chad threatens oil cutoff

• Chad claims victory over rebels

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(CNN) -- Chad won't forcibly return refugees to the troubled Darfur region of Sudan, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Monday.

Speaking by phone from Portugal, the official, Antonio Guterres, said Chadian President Idriss Deby had assured him that apparent threats Friday to do just that resulted from a misunderstanding.

"Chad not only is not going to send them back but never intended to," Guterres said. (Watch how oil and refugees make a volatile mix in Chad -- 2:38)

More than 200,000 refugees have come to Chad fleeing famine and war in Darfur.

Last week, Chad's capital, N'Djamena, came under attack from a column of rebels, some of whom, according to an Associated Press report, were rumored to have been recruited from Darfur refugees.

Deby has held public rallies to celebrate the defeat of the rebels in that attack, but the AP reported Monday that rumors persisted in N'Djamena that an intact rebel force was 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the city.

"We don't know if the rebels will come back today or tomorrow," Henriette Blaah, a 46-year-old secretary, told the AP in N'Djamena. "I've been listening to the radio, and the rebels said they would come back, and I pray that they do not. We do not want this."

The crisis in the Darfur region of western Sudan has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of nearly 2 million people since February 2003 when people in that region began to rebel against state authority. The government launched a campaign to put down the rebels, and the fighting has created the refugee crisis and casualties.

The Janjaweed, an Arab militia, has carried out attacks against ethnic black Africans and is accused of widespread atrocities, including rape, with the support of Sudan's government.

In 2004, then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell labeled the crisis genocide.

Guterres said Deby complained about Janjaweed attacks inside Chad that have forced many Chadians to flee their homes.

Guterres said Chad's concern is that it will "have many difficulties guaranteeing the security of the [refugee] camps," a situation he called "a reality."

"It is obvious that the prevailing situation in Darfur is not only a problem for the Darfurians, ... but it is like a center from which a wave spreads, bringing instability and conflict across the region," he said.

"They have become refugees in their own territory, if I may say so."

Guterres said it was "absolutely essential" that the international community come together to solve the problems in Darfur.

"This goes beyond the United Nations to the international community as a whole," he said.

According to an AP report, Chadian rebel commander Col. Regis Bechir told Radio France International on Saturday that it was Deby, who has held power in Chad for 16 years, who was the obstacle to peace.

"Dialogue is the only way to save the people of Chad," the AP report quoted Bechir as saying. "A national reconciliation, with a democratic basis, would be best. And we are determined to continue the armed struggle against the phony elections."

The United Nations created a mission in Sudan in March 2005, but the Sudanese government has not been supportive of its presence.

Earlier this month, the Sudanese government turned back a plane carrying U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, a move that drew protests from the United Nations.