Uproar after opposition leader charged with inciting rebellion

Senegal’s opposition parties are up in arms and planning a protest march against President Abdoulaye Wade after authorities charged an opposition leader with incitement to rebellion for calling for street demonstrations. Abdourahim Agne, the vocal leader of the small centre-left Reform Party (PR), was charged on Monday with threatening the state and faces three to five years in jail if convicted. He has been detained in a special hospital cell because he has a weak heart. The tough judicial response to his call for street protests at a political rally last week has caused waves in this generally peaceful West African nation. But it comes as 79-year-old Wade is facing increasing political agitation ahead of parliamentary elections next year. Agne’s problems began last week when a privately-owned newspaper L’Observateur reported that during a rally in the central region of Kaolack, he had called “on the Senegalese to follow the example of Ukraine and take to the streets in their millions to demand the departure of the president.” Both the editor of the newspaper and the local reporter who attended the rally were called in for questioning by police ahead of Agne’s arrest on Saturday. Senegalese Information Minister and government spokesman Bacar Dia described the speech as seditious. “Its aim was to incite people to insurrection, uprising and revolt,” he said. “Despite the gravity of the facts, … when questioned by police Abdourahim Agne not only confirmed committing them but persisted by reiterating them on radio when he left.” The leader of the Socialist Party (PS), Senegal’s biggest opposition party which ruled from independence in 1960 until Wade won elections in 2000, said plans were afoot to hold a big march in Dakar to protest against the arrest. “This is intimidation and cannot be allowed,” said PS leader Ousmane Tanor Dieng. “We are planning a march to protest against violence, the stranglehold of the state media, transparency in the elections and attempted intimidation," he added. Other opposition leaders in this country seen as a haven of democracy in the turbulent region, were equally critical. "The arbitrary arrest is a bid to divert attention away from problems within the ruling party," said Madieyna Diouf, the parliamentary leader of the country’s other big opposition grouping, the Alliance of Forces for Progress (AFP). Wade, whose ruling Democratic Party of Senegal (PDS) faces parliamentary elections in 2006, is facing dissent within the movement. Last month, 12 parliamentarians walked out of the ruling coalition and set up a new group. The absconders were all close to former prime minister Idrissa Seck, the onetime deputy leader of the PDS who was believed to be Wade’s heir-apparent until he was ousted a year ago. Following their walkout, Seck’s home was attacked and a pro-PDS student leader was knifed in incidents of violence that are rare in Senegal. Senegal’s next presidential election is set for 2007, but analysts believe it may be held concurrently with the 2006 legislative polls. Wade himself has refused to say whether or not he will run for a second seven-year term despite his age. “Be patient. This doesn’t depend on me. It will depend on my record,” he recently said in an interview on the French TV network, France 3.