GLOBAL INSIGHT INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL DIALOGUE a focus on current issues Issue 74 / November 2007 Unpacking the crisis in Anjouan: a thin line between independence and the struggle for power Timothy Othieno Dr Timothy Othieno is n 14 June 2007, the outgoing president of Anjouan Island of the Comoros archipelago, senior researcher in the OMohamed Bacar, inaugurated himself as president for a second term. This event Africa programme at occurred after Bacar held an unconstitutional election in which he was the only candidate, the Institute for Global and claimed to have received 90 per cent of the total vote. This process was subsequently Dialogue, Johannesburg. declared null and void by the Union of the Comoros government of Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi (an Anjouanais) and the AU. In response, the international community, led by the EU, rejected the elections and called for fresh elections for the island of Anjouan. Earlier, on 10 June, the archipelago had held scheduled elections on two of its three islands – Grand Comore and Mohéli. However, after incidents of violence and intimidation occurred during the run-up to Anjouan’s election (which involved clashes between Union forces and Anjouan’s para-military forces that are reported to have left four or five people dead) the polls on the island were postponed until 17 June by the Union government. On 20 June, after his inauguration, Bacar named a government, while condemnation by the AU and EU mounted against him and the separatist Anjouanais government, with calls to dissolve the government and allow fresh elections to take place. The criticism against Bacar arose from his unconstitutional attempt to establish a government outside the structures of the Union of Comoros government, in violation of the agreements that established the Union in 2003. Bacar’s justification for declaring himself president of Anjouan was that the Anjouanais had experienced a decade of discrimination at the hands of the central government, based in Moroni. Although the situation in which the Comoros finds itself at the moment is not new, the wor- rying aspect of this current debacle is that it threatens the existing union arrangements put in place in 2003. The question that needs to be asked, however, is whether the crisis in Anjouan is a genuine case of the struggle for sovereignty and self-determination, as Mohamed Bacar would want the world to believe, or just a simple case of self-aggrandisement. This policy brief will attempt to assess the genesis and evolution of the Anjouan crisis. This will be done with a view to determining whether the crisis is a question of independence or the struggle for power. Global Insight aims to History of the Comoros provide members of the policy community with The Comoros archipelago is located in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and concise but insightful Mozambique. The archipelago is composed of four islands, namely, Grande Comore analyses of topical issues. (Njazidja), Anjouan (Nzwani), Mohéli (Mwali), and Mayotte (Mahoré). The northernmost Comments and suggestions island is Grande Comore, and south of it is the small island Mohéli. To the east is Anjouan, are invited. the second largest of the islands after Grande Comore, and just south-east of Anjouan is the Global Insight no 74 disputed island of Mayotte. While Grande Comore, Anjouan, In 1974, the archipelago held a referendum in which three and Mohéli gained independence from France and became of the four islands that constitute the Comoros archipelago the Republic of the Comores in 1975, Mayotte remained part voted for independence, while the fourth island, Mayotte, of France with the status of a collectivité territoriale. However, voted overwhelmingly to remain under the French republic. although Mayotte is a territory of the French republic, the In Mayotte, France heavily influenced the political leaders of Union government of the Comoros lays claim to the island, the island into voting against independence. It was Mayotte’s and, de facto, it is therefore part of the Union. The archipelago, decision not to join the republic that prompted Ahmed which has close to 700 000 people, is one of the poorest and Abdallah, one of Comoros’s political leaders, to declare inde- least developed countries in the world. pendence for Comoros unilaterally in July 1975. He became Comoros has had an unstable history, having experienced its first president. However, due to his anti-French stance and 20 coups and attempted coups since its independence in vision of a united Comoros that included Mayotte, Abdallah 1975. The coups are an indication of the vicious elite struggles was deposed in a coup by French mercenary Bob Denard in the archipelago over political and economic power. In this hardly a month after the declaration of independence. regard, the various histories of the islands and their ethnicities Denard would consequently orchestrate a number of success- have been exploited in an intense struggle for control of the ful coups on the archipelago over the next 20 years. Ali Soilih, archipelago. This contestation over political and economic who became president in 1976, tried to turn the country into a power has thus led to inter- and intra-island rivalries among secular, socialist republic, which resulted in the alienation of various political players since independence. the Comorian traditional and political leaders. In 1978, after Although the earliest inhabitants of the islands were prolonged economic decline and conflict with traditional travellers from Indonesia-Polynesia, the archipelago was leaders, Soilih was overthrown and killed by mercenaries led later occupied and settled by immigrants from Africa, the by Denard, who restored Abdallah to power. Arabian Peninsula, and Persia. It was these later immigrants During Abdallah’s reign from 1978 to 1990, the Comoros who consequently shaped the current Comorian society. The endorsed a decentralised system of government, and offi- most notable of these early immigrants were the Shirazi Arab cially became the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros, royal clans, who arrived in the Comoros in the 15th and 16th with a constitution that included all four islands. Abdallah’s centuries, and who stayed to build mosques and set up royal regime was heavily centralised, personalised and corrupt, houses, and who introduced architecture and carpentry. while Denard was efficiently used by the government to deal From the 15th to the middle of the 19th century, the archipel- with dissent. In this symbiotic relationship, Abdallah and ago was governed by a series of sultanates, until France took Denard controlled vast sectors of the economy, monopo- the islands over. They were subsequently occupied by France lised Comoros’s scant resources, curtailed political freedom, from 1886 until 1975, when partial independence was gained and committed massive human-rights abuses. Abdallah’s by Anjouan. After the breakaway from French rule, Anjouan regime was fully supported by France, Comoros’s major trad- joined the Republic of the Comoros. ing partner, and the apartheid South African government 2 Unpacking the crisis in Anjouan (Denard provided military support in Pretoria’s fight against affairs. The island of Anjouan voted overwhelmingly [90 per anti-apartheid movements in Southern Africa). Abdallah’s cent in favour] for autonomy. At the same time, election dates period in office, which saw the economy severely decline and for each of the islands were set for April 2002. In the April resulted in increased impoverishment, especially in Anjouan, elections, Colonel Mohamed Bacar was elected leader of ended in 1990 when Denard and his mercenaries killed him Anjouan, Mohamed Said Fazul was elected leader of Mohéli, in yet another coup d’état. and Mze Abdou Soule Elbak was elected president of Grande Abdallah was succeeded in 1991 by Said Mohamed Comore. Azali Assoumani from Grand Comore was elected Djohar, who was elected president for a five-year term. president of a reunited Comoros for a four-year term. Djohar, whose rule was characterised by financial scandals Although the elections were free and accepted by most and rampant corruption, was deposed five years later by observers, most Anjouanais did not vote in the federal Denard. This time, the French government intervened, and presidential elections. The rationale for this action was that arrested Denard and his mercenaries, placing them under voting in the federal elections would have meant Anjouanais custody in France. The removal of Djohar created a political accepted the union arrangement, and its president as their vacuum in the archipelago which lasted until March 1996, own. Hardly a year after these elections, the Comorian when Mohamed Taki came to power. In a bid to change the security forces foiled another coup plot, against president turbulent political history of the archipelago, Taki drafted Assoumani in February 2003. In December 2003, the leaders a new constitution which extended the authority of the of the semi-autonomous islands reached a power-sharing president, and established Islam as the basis of the law. Taki’s deal, the Beit Salam Agreement, which paved the way for regime was even more centralised and corrupt than those of local and Union assembly elections in March 2004 on the his predecessors. The economy also continued to stagnate, three semi-autonomous islands.2 In May 2006, the Union causing internal opposition to Taki’s kleptocratic regime. This held its second democratic elections and first peaceful transi- resulted in the islands of Anjouan and Mohéli declaring their tion since independence, in which a Muslim cleric, Ahmed independence from the Federal Republic of the Comoros in Abdallah Mohamed Sambi, won the federal presidential elec- August 1997, with the intention of ‘rejoining’ France. Although tions. The presidential elections for the islands of Mohéli and France did not accept the two islands’ request, the standoff Grand Comore, with the exception of Anjouan, were held in between the islands and the federal government persisted June 2007.