Hopewell Radebe
26 March 2008
Pretoria — President Thabo Mbeki said yesterday he regretted there had been fighting on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros as political measures were in place to resolve the conflict.
African Union (AU) forces backed the National Development Army as it attacked at dawn yesterday to regain control of the rebel-held Comoros island of Anjouan.
The army said the rebel force had been defeated and its leader was on the run.
"It seems to us that there was no need to deploy any military forces as the government of the Comoros had undertaken to rerun the elections in May," Mbeki said. SA had sent a message to AU president Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania calling for a peaceful resolution of the problem.
In Moroni, the Comoros capital, the army confirmed that rebel leader Mohamed Bacar had escaped.
Bacar is a French-trained former gendarme who seized power in 2001 and clung on to power after an illegal election last year.
The central government accuses Bacar of secessionist aspirations, although he maintains he is fighting for more autonomy rather than independence.
"Anjouan island is under total control of the army," Maj Ahmed Sidi said at a press conference on the neighbouring island of Moheli with AU representatives.
Sudanese and Tanzanian soldiers made up the AU contingent.
Sidi said no one had been killed, but this could not be confirmed.
A government spokesman said Bacar was believed to have dressed up as a woman and was trying to escape by boat.
The island nation, at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and Mozambique, has survived 19 coups and coup attempts since its 1975 independence from France. A presidential official said about 400 AU troops had joined the initial assault. The bloc had sent a total force of about 1350 .
Analysts said the AU was hoping to secure a relatively easy victory in Anjouan to earn some international prestige to offset the struggles of its peacekeeping missions in Sudan and Somalia. With Reuters
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