Chad says Sudanese and al Qaeda among rebel prisoners

By Stephanie Hancock and Moumine Ngarmbassa

N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad's government on Wednesday displayed more than 100 prisoners it said were captured during a rebel assault on the capital this month, branding them Sudanese mercenaries, Islamic militants and members of al Qaeda.

The prisoners, many of them children, were packed into a tiny courtyard of N'Djamena's police headquarters which smelt of excrement.

Many appeared exhausted, seated barefoot on the concrete floor, while others stared blankly into the distance as journalists scrambled to film them.

"They are from the Islamic Legion, from al Qaeda, or purely and simply mercenaries," said Interior Minister Mahamat Ahmat Bachir, as he showed journalists an ammunition box filled with ID cards and documents he claimed belonged to the rebels.

Bachir did not explain why the government had waited for more than a week after the February 2 attack on N'Djamena to present the prisoners.

More than 160 people were killed in two days of confused street fighting which sent tens of thousands of refugees fleeing into Cameroon and hampered a massive relief program in eastern Chad, which borders Sudan's Darfur region.

Many of the documents were written in Arabic, while some ID cards were those of men belonging to the Rally of Forces for Change (RFC), a rebel group led by Timane Erdimi, a nephew of Chadian President Idriss Deby.

Bachir said more than 40 percent of the 135 prisoners were Sudanese. Deby's government has accused Khartoum of supporting the rebel coalition in Chad in order to export Arab Islamic militancy westward across the Sahara.