   |
|
afrol.com, 31 October - Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Union (OAU), Salim Ahmed Salim, met with Comoran foreign minister Souef Mohamed Al-Amin in Libya, discussing the peace and reconciliation process in Comoros. OAU will not lift its total embargo against the island of Anjouan. According to the Great SPLAJ Radio (Tripoli), the two parties met on Saturday and foreign minister Souef Mohamed Al-Amin presented Secretary-General Salim an "explanation about the procedures which would be taken in order to achieve such reconciliation". There was no information about any progress in the talks between the Comoros and the OAU. The Comoran conflict principally has been between between the Government on Grande Comoro and the separatist Government on the island of Anjouan, which declared independence in 1997. Reconciliation was reached between the Comoran and Anjouanese parties in August in the Fomboni Joint Declaration, calling for a new Comoran Confederation of Independent States. However, the pressure against the controversial Fomboni Declaration from the OAU has brought up new conflict lines on the small Indian Ocean Archipelago. The OAU is maintaining its total embargo against the island of Anjouan, against the will of the Comoro Government. The embargo has had severe humanitarian and economic consequences on Anjouan, and the Anjouanese Government claims that even a shipment of medicines to the island, which experienced a cholera outbreak last month, had been halted. The OAU claims that the Fomboni Declaration seriously jeopardized "the territorial integrity" of the Comoro Republic, a sacrosanct principle of the organisation, which will not recognise any changes in the borders drawn by the ancient colonial powers on the African continent in fear that this might spur other separatist, ethnic and religious movements. The organisation's draft for a reconciliation, the Antananarivo Agreement, was rejected by the Anjouanese in a referendum. Mr. Salim and Mr. Al-Amin have had regular talks to overcome the crisis, but the OAU maintains that the only basis for peace on the Comoros is its
Antananarivo Agreement. Meanwhile, pressure is growing on Grande Comoro against the military ruler, Colonel Azali Assoumani, to cancel the Fomboni process and get in line with OAU demands. The Fomboni process foresees a referendum in near future over a new Constitution, which defines the new Comoran Confederation of Independent States.
Sources: Based on information from Libya News
List, via BBC and Great SPLAJ Radio
|
