IRIN Focus on Casamance peace agreement

For two recent peace agreements between Senegal’s government and the Mouvement des Forces Democratiques de Casamance (MFDC)to succeed, a number of conditions will need to be met, observers say. One of them, the observers say, is the holding of a meeting of the various sections of the MFDC that should have preceded this month’s negotiations between delegations led by the movement’s secretary-general, the Reverend Augustine Diamacoune Senghor, and Senegal’s interior minister, General Mamadou Niang. The agreements, signed on 16 and 23 March, “can go a long way towards achieving peace if the various parties respect their commitments”, Dieudonne Pandare of the Rencontre africaine des Droits de l’Homme (RADDHO) told IRIN. “However, I think the meeting between Diamacoune and the various sections of the MFDC is indispensable.” The agreements The text of the latest accord, concluded on Friday and published in the official ‘Le Soleil’ daily, states that agreement was reached on the surrender and destruction of weapons, the encampment of MFDC forces and the return of the military to the barracks, but gives no details. “The two parties commit themselves to sparing no effort for the integral and unconditional respect of the agreements of 16 and 23 March 2001 and the definitive return of peace,” the accord states. Ad hoc technical commissions are to “organise the implementation of the points agreed on 16 and 23 March” and “a work timetable shall be established jointly on Friday 6 April.” On 16 March, the two sides agreed to consolidate a ceasefire by ensuring the free movement of people and goods and an end to highway robberies, following a spate of attacks in February and March that killed over 20 civilians and caused transporters to go on strike in mid-March. The government and the MFDC also agreed that no one would be arbitrarily arrested, abducted, tortured, or killed. Other points of agreement were the release of prisoners; cleaning up the environment and the return of refugees and displaced persons; the launch of reintegration programmes; and the implementation of road construction projects. Development dividend to be expected, says interior minister Highlighting the benefits to be expected from the agreements, Niang said President Abdoulaye Wade was committed to developing Casamance by ending its isolation - road and sea links to the area are poor - and by building schools and a university, ‘Le Soleil’ reported on Saturday. “You will soon see on the ground the effects of his (Wade’s) commitment,” the official ‘Le Soleil’ reported Niang as telling Diamacoune at the opening ceremony of Friday’s talks at the bishopric of Ziguinchor, the main town in Casamance. Niang said that following the agreement, contacts would be made with international donors “who are only waiting for us and you so that glimmers of hope may finally become bright lights and so that the beacon of peace may always light up our actions”. The MFDC has been fighting since 1982 for self-determination for the Casamance, which is a chunk of Senegalese territory sandwiched between The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. According to Pandare, the participation of these two countries is indispensable to a resolution of the Casamance conflict. Both countries have been accused of providing rear bases for the MFDC, which their governments and the MFDC have denied. They also host thousands of refugees from the conflict. Moreover, the people of Casamance have close kinship ties with communities in Guinea-Bissau and The Gambia. Weaknesses of the negotiation process For Alexandre Djiba who, until recently was the MFDC spokesman in The Gambia, the fact that a planned meeting of the group’s national congress - made up of its internal, external and military wings - was not held prior to this month’s negotiations means that Diamacoune has received no mandate from the group. That meeting was to have been held on 3 January but was postponed by Diamacoune. A notable absentee from Friday’s agreement, concluded after two hours of discussions, was Salif Sadio, a leading MFDC field commander, against whom the government issued an international arrest warrant earlier this month following the February-March attacks. Pandare and other observers see the warrant as an obstacle to the agreements’ success since much depends on the adhesion of the fighters to the accords. Diamacoune called on Friday for the warrant to be lifted. ‘Le Soleil’ quotes Niang as replying that he understood the need for the MFDC leader to stress the free circulation of people and goods, “including the freedom of movement of Salif Sadio provided that Sadio accepts the hand of peace that we are extending to him”. Fighters will need material support According to Pandare, for this month’s agreements to yield lasting peace, past errors need to be avoided. For example, he said, the authorities had promised during a previous ceasefire, in 1991, to supply encamped MFDC fighters with food and did so for some time. When this stopped, highway robberies and other acts of violence resumed, so once the fighters are encamped, they would need to be given supplies - such as rice and oil, but not money, Pandare said. Key issue left untouched The agreements do not mention the contentious issue of the status of Casamance. While the Senegalese government says the area is an integral part of Senegal, some sections of the MFDC might be unwilling to back the accord unless that issue is addressed. Djiba told IRIN in Banjul that what would need to be made clear is whether “the reasons for which the MFDC has been fighting the Senegalese government are based on a right (to self-determination) or not”. He adds that a distinction needs to be made between the right and the exercise of that right, pointing to the case of New Caledonia where the indigenous Kanak people did not opt for immediate independence a decade ago when their right to self-determination was acknowledged. Asked if this meant the MFDC could drop its call for a separate state, he said: “Once the right to self-determination is recognised, the people of Casamance should be trusted to know what is good for them and what is not”.