Mbeki facilitates Comoros deal
Matome Sebelebele
5 January 2004
President Thabo Mbeki, leading an African Union delegation to the Comoros to help the archipelago settle its political problems, has facilitated a power-sharing agreement that will see the island nation hold parliamentary elections in April.
The agreement, signed at the end of December, commits the Comoran political parties from the islands of Grand Comore, Anjouan and Moheli to hold elections in April, set up security structures before and during the elections, establish a new customs regime and manage an interim budget.
In terms of the agreement - signed by President Assali Assoumane and the presidents of the three islands - the islands will manage their own budgets.
The parties also agreed that the islands will have their own police forces and that the army will be under the command of the national administration.
Mbeki, who was mandated by the AU to help break the deadlock in the Comoros, facilitated the historic signing
ceremony that was attended by leaders from the continent, Europe and the United Nations.
The island state off the northeastern coast of Madagascar was excluded from participating in meetings of the Organisation for African Unity and its successor, the AU, in July 2000 because of an unconstitutional transfer of power.
Presidential elections, under international observation, were held in 2002 to elect the leader of the Union of Comoros, and the presidents of the three autonomous islands.
However, a power struggle ensued between the Union's president, Azali Assoumani, and the president of the Union's principal island, Grande Comore, Abdou Soul El'bak, with both presidents claiming authority over tax collection, customs, the local gendarmerie and several other institutions on Grande Comore.
Source: BuaNews
| 
