Hardline leader of Casamance rebellion dies

Separatist rebels in Senegal's southern province of Casamance announced on Monday the death of Sidi Badji, a hardline leader who had held out against any compromise with the government on Dakar. The Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) has confirmed the death of Badji at the age of about 83. Despite his advancing years, Badji had remained, at least nominally, the head of the MFDC’s military wing and commander-in-chief of its guerrilla army which has waged a low-intensity war against the Senegalese government for over 30 years. Badji and his supporters opposed the softer line taken by MFDC's veteran President, Augustin Diamacoune Senghor, a Roman Catholic priest who has recently shown a willingness to settle for a modest degree of autonomy for Casamance, providing this is accompanied by government investment. The swampy and heavily wooded province constitutes the narrow tongue of southern Senegal that separates Gambia from Guinea-Bissau. The MFDC’s history has been marked by serious internal splits and personality clashes. The Senegalese government has frequently been accused of fomenting divisions within the the rebel movement, playing one faction off against the other. President Abdoulaye Wade signed a provisional peace agreement with the MFDC in March 2001, but made he clear that a real rapprochement between the government and separatists would require evidence of unity within the MFDC’s ranks. A special MFDC congress was convened in the Gambian capital, Banjul, in August 2001, but did not resolve differences. Over the past two years there has been a concerted campaign by local non-governmental organisations and other would-be peacemakers to improve relations between Diamacoune and Badji and to send an unequivocal message of peace to MFDC combatants in the bush. Government delegations to the regional capital, Ziguinchor, made a point of visiting both men. But Badji, a former soldier in the French army, was a notable absentee when Diamacoune came to Dakar for peace talks with President Wade on May 4. While MFDC colleagues blamed his absence on ill-health, there was renewed speculation about Badji’s differences with Diamacoune and his opposition to any political settlement that failed to give Casamance full independence. A new MFDC peace conference was scheduled to open in Bissau on June 1, but Bertrand Diamacoune, the brother of the movement's president, The MFDC told IRIN that the meeting may be delayed while the MFDC organised Badji’s funeral. Diamacoune paid tribute to the dead military commander. "Sidi Badji was someone I held in my heart", he said. "He offered us experience and encouragement."