Agence France-Presse,
MUTSAMUDU, Comoros: The president of the Comoros on Monday ordered his army to retake the rebel island of Anjouan, as civilians there were warned of an imminent assault by African Union troops.
In a televised address, President Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi announced that he had given the green light to a long-threatened joint operation by Comoran and AU forces to reunify the Indian Ocean archipelago.
Earlier, the military had air-dropped a cloud of leaflets over the rebel island's capital Mutsamadu warning citizens that the taskforce could arrive within hours to depose Anjouan's leader Colonel Mohamed Bacar.
“I have ordered the Comoran army and the the forces of our country's friends to bring Anjouan back under the rule of law and free her citizens,” Sambi said, adding that he did so “without joy, like swallowing a bitter pill”.
Bacar's breakaway regime is backed by an estimated 300-strong force of gendarmes, which now faces a joint AU force numbering more than 1,000 Tanzanian and Sudanese soldiers and around 400 Comoran loyalists.
France, the country's former colonial power, has also given the operation its blessing, and helped air-lift the AU troops to the area.
Sambi said any gendarmes that stayed at home and refused to fight would be spared and allowed to rejoin the national armed forces, but warned: “Those who want to kill will be killed. Mohammed Bacar isn't worth dying for.”
Since winning independence from France in 1975, the Comoros have never known constitutional stability and have faced 19 coups or coup attempts.
Bacar had been the elected president of Anjouan — each of the three islands in the federation has its own leader, under a federal president — since 2002.
He ran for re-election in June 2007 in a poll that was declared illegal by Sambi's federal government and was never recognised by the African Union. He has run the territory as a breakaway province ever since.
Port officials in Fomboni, the capital of the loyalist island of Moheli, told AFP that two ships had set off carrying part of the invasion force and that three more were expected to cast off soon.
The leaflets dropped by the helicopter said the operation would “begin within days or the coming hours”.
“Residents are also advised not to go far from their homes,” they added, urging pupils, fishermen, traders and farmers not to take to their fields or their boats until further notice.
The commander of Bacar's gendarmerie, Major Ahmed Salim, remained defiant despite the threat of the much larger force bearing down on Anjouan.
Salim told a press conference that the federal army had gone beyond its authority in allying with foreign troops against Anjouan's gendarmes, who remained determined “to carry out their mission as defined by law”.
Reacting to the reports that African troops were converging on Anjouan, the island's cooperation minister told AFP that Bacar's forces were ready to face the enemy.
“We have heard on the radio that AU troops and forces loyal to Comoran President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi started moving,” said Mohamed Abdou Madi, one of Bacar's top aides.
“They have decided to kill but we are not afraid. We are well prepared. Our forces are ready and it's going to work,” he added.
In an interview with AFP on Thursday, Bacar had veered between a defiant and conciliatory tone.
“I am still determined to defend Anjouan despite my concern that people are ready to come here and fire on the Anjouanese. But I am continuing with my preparations to defend Anjouan,” he said.
Comoran central authorities, meanwhile, appeared to be in no mood to give Bacar a second chance.
“Colonel Bacar will be arrested if he does not flee and will face Comoran courts for treason, usurpation of power, torture and war crimes,” Comoran Vice President Idi Nadhoim said.
Several witnesses have told AFP of cases of torture under Bacar's rule.
