COMOROS: Federal government receives African support for invasion of breakaway island

Record ID: 452605

  • Title: COMOROS: Federal government receives African support for invasion of breakaway island
  • Date: 5th March 2008
  • Summary: VIEW OF COAST
  • Embargoed: 20th March 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Comoros
  • Country: Comoros
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAC0YIEDW63NKOXAP0M5CVEJ4PB
  • Story Text: After several failed attempts to negotiate with the renegade leader of Anjouan, the federal government of the archipelago of Comoros is preparing to invade and is being backed up by several African countries.
    SCRIPT: In the Union of the Comoros, attempts by the African Union to negotiate with rebel island leader Mohamed Bacar have failed, and the international community now sees military action as the only option.
    Bacar, the self-declared president of Anjouan island, has defied the AU and the national authorities in the coup-prone Indian Ocean archipelago ever since he won an illegal election last June.
    A delegation made up of officials from the Arab League, the AU, France and the United States returned from visiting Anjouan on Wednesday (February 27) after an unsuccessful last chance meeting with Bacar to negotiate a peaceful end to the political stand off.
    Bacar was offered the chance to surrender and go into exile in an unnamed country, which he refused.
    Comoros' federal government is planning to invade, with the military and logistical support of friendly nations, Tanzania, Senegal, Libya and Sudan. Sudan and Senegal are expected to provide 600 and 150 soldiers respectively. Tanzania already has 200 troops in Comoros who were sent there last July as part of an AU election-monitoring mission and more are expected in the next few days. Libya is set to provide logistical support. France has agreed to transport troops from the main island of Grande Comore to the small island of Moheli, where Comorian troops are stationed, but French soldiers will not get involved in the invasion.
    Refugees have been leaving Anjouan over the past few weeks with tales of poverty and political repression by Bacar's rebels.
    Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe spoke on behalf of the AU when the delegation returned.

    "The AU, together with the groups of the Comoros, are determined to restore the state of authority in Anjouan and in this case Colonel Bacar has no uncle and no godfather. He only has two options, the first option is to get out of the Anjouan Island and he can be guaranteed of his protection.
    Number two is to surrender himself and he should not allow the gendarmerie to shoot because if they do it will be responded by massive retaliation and if it is that death happens, he will be responsible for the war crimes," said Tanzania's Foreign Minister Bernard Membe.
    Membe said Tanzania, which holds the AU presidency, hopes to set an example by resolving the crisis.

    "Africa, not only Tanzania, the African countries will never tolerate anybody who tries to secede himself from a major federation, or from a union, or a major country, that includes Tanzania, and this should serve as a lesson in the future for all renegades who are intending or who have the intention to secede from their unions or from their governments. This should serve as a lesson, never should they try because the continent will never fold to tolerate them," Membe continued.
    Abdel Hakim Rifai from the Arab League was part of the delegation that met with Bacar.

    "Unfortunately we have not heard a positive response from Colonel Bacar and so I believe now that the machinery is in motion. The African Union has already started to take steps to follow through the operation," said Rifai.
    Bacar charges the federal government with discriminating against Anjouan, which is home to about 300,000 of the archipelago's 700,000 population.
    Previous attempts by the government in 1997 and 2007 to take control of the island by force both failed.
    The Union of the Comoros has endured 19 coups or attempted coups since independence from France in 1975.
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