Tension between islands continues

The standoff between Anjouan's local authorities, which took control of the island in a deadly clash last week, and the Comoros Union government, remains unresolved. Upcoming elections and Comoran unity hang in the balance.

The islands of Anjouan and Moheli declared independence from Grand Comore in 1997, but the secessionist crisis was resolved with an agreement brokered in 2001 by the African Union's predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity. The agreement gave the each of the three semi-autonomous islands that make up Comoros their own government and president, with a rotating presidency for the Union.

Last week on Wednesday, Anjouan island security forces loyal to outgoing island president Mohamed Bacar, attacked and overran Union government troops who had taken control of federal buildings in the island's capital, Mutsamudu, to install an interim island government. Two Union government soldiers were reportedly killed in the exchange of gun and rocket fire.

Comoros has experienced 19 successful and attempted coups during the past three decades. Bacar seized power on Anjouan in a 2001 coup but a year later was elected island president for a five-year term.

Francisco Madeira, special envoy for the African Union (AU), arrived in the Comoros on Saturday to help resolve the confrontation and strongly denounced the fighting, particularly considering the archipelago's volatile political history and the successful Union presidential elections held one year ago. "This problem is very unfortunate; Mr Bacar resorted to the use of weapons and we strongly disapprove and condemn this action," he told IRIN.

Madeira, heading a delegation consisting of United Nations (UN), French, Libyian, Madagascan, Chinese and AU representatives, said: "We are working together on a memorandum of understanding between all parties. Things are going well. The idea is not to allow this incident to interfere with the upcoming elections."

Union presidency elections in April 2006, when the Union presidency moved from Grand Comore to Anjouan, were aimed at ending the strife and inter-island mistrust that have characterised the political landscape of the Comoros since they won independence from France in 1975. Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, who comes from Anjouan and is known affectionately as 'The Ayatollah', became president of the Union in a landslide victory.

Highlighting the deep rivalries between the islands, Opia Kumah, the UN's Resident Coordinator in the Comoros, said: "The underlying causes [behind the tension] are very deep but the immediate trigger for the current current situation in Anjouan was the constititonal dispute over the end of President Bacar's five-year term."

A ruling by the Comoros Constitutional Court said Bacar had to step down after his term had expired on 14 April, and an interim president and cabinet for the island would be appointed until voting, scheduled to start on 10 June, had taken place on each of the three islands.

Union president Sambi selected Kaabi Houmadi as Anjouan's interim president, who unveiled his cabinet last week. Bacar denounced the move, and when Union army forces attempted to secure government buildings to install the new cabinet, island security forces loyal to Bacar opened fire.

"The international community, including the UN, has invested a great deal to ensure the unity of the country. No island should disrupt the reconciliation process, which is the only guarantee for development and the fight against poverty in Comoros," Kumah said.

"Anjouan is part and parcel of the national union, now Anjouan's forces need to be integrated [into the national army] - they should only be a police force, not a military," Madeira commented.

He urged the Union of Comoros government and the Anjouan Island government to resolve their differences promptly. "We now need to go back to the basics. To organise the elections, to make sure Mr Bacar steps down, to lift the curfew and to release the soldiers that were captured."

Although Anjouan's port and airport remained closed, Madeira was optimistic that a quick resolution to the crisis would be found, and said he believed a compromise could be struck by the end of the week.

The Union's military chief, Colonel Said Hamza, has reportedly been dismissed and replaced by an interim head of the army.

tdm/he