Coup in the Comoros: Mercenary Colonel Bob Denard=20 makes his final try for an island retirement — but=20 his comfort is short-lived as French troops arrive.=20
For South African tourists, the Comoros are a=20 pleasure-seeker’s paradise but, outside the hotel=20 precincts, an explosive mix of poverty and=20 political infighting threatens constant crisis,=20 writes Eddie Koch=20
The suntanned tourists who arrived back at=20 Johannesburg International Airport on Saturday,=20 airlifted out of a Comoros holiday extended=20 courtesy of Colonel Bob Denard and his band of=20 embattled mercenaries, highlighted a central theme=20 of Pretoria’s relations with the troubled=20 archipelago: many of them told television reporters=20 how they sipped cocktails on the beach without=20 realising people were being shot in a mini-war 20km=20
While South African tourists and businessmen treat=20 the place as a playground for pleasure, they are=20 reluctant to recognise — either through naivete or=20 a hedonistic urge not to have their fun spoilt –=20 that wretched economic conditions combined with=20 byzantine political infighting have turned the=20 stormy islands into what one recent account calls=20 cloud coup-coup land.=20
That the Comoros suffer from chronic economic and=20 political instability was shown in Denard’s latest=20 attempt to install a shadow government that would=20 allow his force of mercenaries to rule in the=20 island’s background. After toppling the government=20 of President Sa=F9d Mohamed Djohar last Thursday,=20 Denard tried to avert French military intervention=20 by rapidly handing nominal power over to an interim=20 government led by a trio of civilian leaders –=20 Sa=F9d Ali Kemal, Mohamed Taki Abdoulkarim and Omar=20
But, within 24-hours of being appointed, the new=20 government disintegrated as the three co-presidents=20 squabbled over whether Denard be allowed to stay on=20 as a citizen of the Comoros. Kemal and Abdoulkarim=20 said they wanted him, while Tamou, secretary=20 general of the powerful Udzima party, insisted=20 Denard and the other mercenaries should get out and=20 let Comorians decide their own future. The result?=20 A meeting of political parties, called to cement=20 Denard’s new civilian government, dispersed in=20 comic chaos — and opened the way for this week’s=20 invasion by French special forces.=20
A crack commando of 600 French troops ended the=20 dramatic week by storming the island on Wednesday=20 morning. By early yesterday, Africa’s most famous=20 mercenary had released the president and holed up=20 in a makeshift barracks, trying to negotiate an=20 ”honourable” surrender for his men. The French=20 commanders insisted, however, they were not there=20 to do a deal with Denard.=20
If South Africans are naive about the stormy=20 politics of the Comoros, Denard should at least=20 have had the foresight to realise that the=20 internecine nature of the island’s ruling elites=20 would undo his latest effort to become king. In an=20 interview with author Samantha Weinberg –=20 conducted after he was exiled to Pretoria in the=20 wake of the 1992 assassination of Comorian=20 President Ahmed Abdallah — the Frenchman justified=20 his series of armed incursions by saying the=20 staunchly Islamic islands have always had more=20 mercenaries and putsches than priests.=20
The self-imposed truth of his statement shows in a=20 brief chronology of coups that have rocked the=20 islands over the last two decades:=20
* August 1975. President Ahmed Abdallah is deposed=20 in a coup after winning the country’s first=20 elections three years earlier. Denard’s mercenaries=20 install a young populist leader called Ali Soilih=20 as president. Denard leaves the islands for three=20 years to embark on other African adventures.=20
* May 1978. Denard and a 30-strong commando=20 overthrow Soilih — who, in the intervening years,=20 imposed a rigid form of socialism on the islands=20 and tried to smash their traditional Islamic=20 strucuture . They restore Abdallah to power and=20 Denard effectively rules the islands by turning his=20 dogs of war into a Garde Presidentielle that=20 becomes the military, and economic, power behind=20 the throne.=20
* March 1985. Comorian members of the Presidential=20 Guard stage a mutiny against their white mercenary=20 commanders. The presence of the mercenaries — and=20 accusations that they were plundering the island’s=20 coffers — leads to another bungled coup attempt in=20 November 1987. Both uprisings are brutally=20 supressed on Denard’s orders.=20
* November 1989. President Abdallah is shot dead=20 during a heated argument with Denard and a=20 mercenary colleague called Commandant Marques,=20 after the president comes under strong pressure=20 from France and South Africa, now led by reformist=20 President FW De Klerk, to get rid of the=20 mercenaries. =20
Denard is widely believed to be the assassin, but=20 claims the president was accidentally shot by one=20 of his own aides — who was panicking because the=20 Comoros armed forces were busy staging a coup of=20 their own! The murder, still unresolved, leads to=20 Denard being forced into exile. Djohar is elected=20 as president.=20
Those who believed that the departure of the=20 modern-day pirates would bring stability to the=20 Comoros were soon to be disappointed. Djohar almost=20 immediately reverted to the traditional style of=20 ruling the islands through a complicated system of=20 patronage which revolved around constantly shifting=20 alliances with the Islamic sultans and ruling=20 families who control the archipelago and much of=20 its ailing economy.=20
Since coming to power in 1989, Djohar’s government=20 has been constantly plagued by allegations that=20 members of his family have their fingers in the=20 state’s coffers while civil servants and civilians=20 have to endure one of the world’s poorest=20 economies. The islands have a tiny manufacturing=20 sector based on the export of vanilla, cloves and=20 a plant called ylang ylang, which is used to make=20 French perfume. But 80 percent of the islanders are=20 employed in subsistence farming or stagnating cash=20 crop estates and, on top of that, an austerity=20 programme designed by the International Monetary=20 Fund and France has caused serious distress for=20 most Comorians.=20
These tensions came to a head in the months leading=20 up to Denard’s latest coup last week — and=20 provided the French mercenary with the pretext he=20 needed to stage what now looks to be his last=20 adventure in Africa. In July, a crisis was sparked=20 in Djohar’s cabinet by allegations that a deal=20 involving the proposed privatisation of Air Comores=20 and its merger with a company based in the United=20 Arab Emirates was riddled with corruption. The=20 president responded by sacking three of his=20 strongest critics from the cabinet and replacing=20 them with loyalists.=20
This was preceded by an expose, published in the=20 Indian Ocean newsletter in May this year, that=20 Djohar’s government had signed a deal with German=20 and Austrian companies to build a dump for=20 processing toxic waste from industrial countries.=20 And, to make matters worse, Comorians were treated=20 to the spectacle of Djohar’s two sons-in-law=20 squabbling with each other over control of the=20 toxic waste and airline deals: Mohamed Sa=F9d=20 Mchangama versus Mohamed Sa=F9d Sagaf versus Mohamed=20 Sa=F9d Djohar.=20
While these fratricidal struggles were undermining=20 the government, Prime Minister Mohamed Caabi el=20 Yachroutu warned of impending economic disaster. In=20 a June speech to parliament, he pointed out that=20 state revenue in the first five months of 1995 had=20 fallen short of budget forecasts and that $3,2- million had to be saved by the end of the year.=20 Salaries of government ministers and civil servants=20 were slashed and massive tax levies imposed on all=20 government and parastatal workers — by far the=20 largest segment of the formal labour force in an=20 archipelago wracked by unemployment. =20
Not surprisingly, Denard’s latest coup was preceded=20 by strikes and demonstrations in the streets of the=20 island’s capital, Moroni, and followed by reports=20 that a large percentage of the population danced=20 with jubilation in the same streets when the=20 mercenary force landed. =20
France’s airborne invasion of the stormy isles this=20 week will, no doubt, be followed by the rapid=20 reinstatement of Djohar and his prime minister.=20 France will continue to provide a lifeline in the=20 form of $17-million each year in development aid.=20 And tourists will soon be able to visit Le Galawa=20 again and return with tales about their idyllic=20 holiday in cloud coup-coup land.=20
Meanwhile, the options for France’s dog of war have=20 narrowed dramatically. It looks as though his=20 prediction, made to reporters in Moroni this week,=20 that he will spend many of his remaining years in a=20 French jail, will come true. When French troops=20 last chased Denard out the Comoros, in 1989, the=20 colonel was able to ensure that he and his men were=20 flown in a South African Air Force Dakota to=20 Pretoria, where Denard lived in a house supplied by=20 the South African government.=20
The favours from Pretoria were designed to buy his=20 silence. When Denard ruled the islands in the=20 1980s, he allowed South Africa’s military=20 intelligence to build a listening post to monitor=20 strategic naval traffic and the ANC’s training=20 camps in nearby Tanzania. Weapons from South Africa=20 were smuggled to right-wing Renamo rebels from the=20 Comoros and there are reports that the islands were=20 used as a refuelling point for South African cargo=20 planes ferrying arms from Armscor to Iraq before=20 the Gulf War.=20
But there is now a new government in South Africa=20 and the French are clearly weary of the colonel’s=20 antics. French military officers pointed out this=20 week that Denard was under a five-year suspended=20 sentence for his role in the 1977 Benin coup and,=20 this time, he has little chance of staying out of=20
All of this offers little hope for an end to the=20 persistent state of political crisis which=20 periodically punctures — as it did in the last=20 fortnight — the South African romance that the=20 Comoros are a place of perfume and happiness.=20