Ready to Talk Peace, Chad’s President Says

President Hissen Habre joined his people Saturday in celebrating Chad’s sweeping military victory over Libyan forces and said he is ready to open immediate peace talks with Libya’s Moammar Kadafi.

“Chad wants peace. If the Libyan regime wants to open a dialogue with us in order to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, we are ready at any moment,” Habre said at a joint news conference with visiting President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire.

“But we are not prepared to fold our arms and allow Kadafi to attack and occupy our territory, employ terrorism against us and try to surround us by subverting our neighbors.”

Mobutu flew from Kinshasa, Zaire’s capital, to join in official ceremonies hailing the lightning campaign that routed the Libyan troops from most of Chad’s northern desert, which they had occupied for more than five years. Zairean troops had fought with Chad in the past against the Libyan occupiers.

Habre and Mobutu were cheered by thousands of Chadians who danced in tribal robes and sang patriotic songs.

Habre warned that his victory is not yet complete.

He said the Libyans still hold “large parts of Chad,” including the northern slopes of the Tibesti mountains and other northern regions. The Libyans still are bombing their captured bases, trying to destroy sophisticated Soviet-made equipment abandoned there, he added.

But Habre avoided replying to explicit questions on whether he intends to continue his campaign into the disputed Aouzou strip adjoining the Libyan border north of the Tibesti.

The strip, thought possibly to contain uranium, was unilaterally annexed by Libya in 1973, and integrated into Libya’s domestic economy and administration. No foreign government has formally recognized the annexation.