One of Africa's lesser-known but more contentious states, the Union of the Comoros, may be reverting to type after a year of relative peace. The immediate cause of the trouble is contention between Federal President Azali Assoumani and the president of the island of Grand Comore, but it has its roots in a long history of instability.
The Comoros were settled in the tenth century by Shirazi traders. The islands' tradition of fractiousness was visible even then, with a network of quarreling sultans spreading throughout the islands; at one time, there were 12 sultans on the 500-square-mile Grand Comore alone.
In the early 19th century, the Comoros came under French rule, and were administered from Madagascar until they became a separate colony in 1948. In 1961, they achieved internal self-government, and the victory of a pro-independence party in the 1972 election made separation from France inevitable. In July 1975, Grand Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli became the independent Republic of the Comoros, with only the island of Mayotte choosing to remain with France.
Mayotte, it may fairly be said, got the better of the bargain. In the quarter-century of Comoran independence, the country has suffered more than 20 coups, with strongmen and mercenary leaders taking turns in the presidential palace. The coup de grace was administered in 1997, when Anjouan seceded from the federation, followed shortly thereafter by Mohéli. An attempt by government forces to reconquer Anjouan was repelled by the secessionists, and although Mohéli eventually drifted back into the federation, negotiations with the Anjouanais dragged on under the auspices of the OAU.
Ultimately, after yet another coup put Assoumani in power on Grand Comore, island leaders issued a joint declaration agreeing in principle to a federal republic. In 2001, a draft constitution was promulgated under which each island would be a sovereign state with its own president. Article 9 provided that the powers of the federal government would be limited to "religion, nationality, coinage, foreign relations, external defense and national symbols." Power over inter-island affairs or island-level decisions that affected other islands would be shared between the federal and island governments as provided by an organic law and the judgments of a constitutional court. (I think so, anyway - I'd appreciate it if someone would check my French.)
The road to reunion remained difficult. In November 2001, Anjouan suffered a coup of its own, which one commentator drily stated "may disrupt the national reconciliation process." An invasion of Mohéli from an unknown quarter days before a referendum on the new constitution also didn't help matters. Nevertheless, on December 27, 2001, the voters of the Comoros approved the constitution by a 77 percent margin. Subsequent referenda in March and April 2002 resulted in Anjouan and Mohéli formally rejoining the federation, and Assoumani became the Second Republic's first elected president in May.
The problems began soon afterward. The elected president of Grand Comore, Abdou Soule Elbak, was a bitter rival of Assoumani, and he quickly began to quarrel with the federal government over the boundary of its constitutional power. He contended that the "external defense" limitation in Article 9 meant that local policing was exclusively an island matter, and also demanded the "financial autonomy" guaranteed by Article 11. According to that article, revenue-sharing between the federal and island governments was supposed to be fixed by an organic law, but no such law was passed. The result was that many businesses on Grand Comore received two tax bills - one from the Union and one from the island - and couldn't even be sure which court to appeal to for relief.
Last month, matters took a turn for the worse when two ministers in the Grand Comore government were arrested on suspicion of plotting a coup against Assoumani, a charge Elbak hotly denies. Elbak retaliated quickly by requesting that the EU suspend its payments to the federal government for fishing rights until the power-sharing dispute was resolved. This week, joined by the president of Anjouan, Elbak declared that "dialogue between the three presidents and Assoumani has completely broken down."
The Comoro situation is a textbook example of what happens when power-sharing agreements are not spelled out with sufficient detail. The 2001 constitution left many details unspecified, in the anticipation that they would be filled in by cooperative legislation and the judgments of the constitutional court. In a country where the dominant political tradition is feudal and both the rule of law and trust between political leaders are virtually nonexistent, however, neither of these things can be taken for granted.
Is there a city, town or village named Mitsouje Hambou in Grandes Comores Island ?
Posted by: karla at December 27, 2003 11:30 PM