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Comoros The Demise of Abdallah, 1989
Only weeks before the violent end of the Abdallah
regime in
late 1989, one observer noted that "Comoros is still run
like a
village, with a handful of tough men in charge and
supported by
foreign aid." As Comorans prepared for a November 4, 1989,
referendum on constitutional changes that would enable
President
Abdallah to run for a third term in 1990, human rights
remained
in precarious condition, and the only avenue of economic
advancement for most islanders--the civil service--faced
cutbacks
at the urging of the World Bank and the International
Monetary
Fund
(IMF--see Glossary).
Even those who would keep their
government jobs, however, were not guaranteed economic
security.
As often occurred whenever export earnings slid, civil
servants
had not been paid since mid-summer.
The official result of the referendum was a 92.5
percent
majority in favor of the amendments proposed by Abdallah,
which
now created "the conditions for a life presidency," warned
one
opposition leader. Balloting was marked by the now
customary
manipulation by the government. Opposition groups reported
that
polling places lacked private voting booths, government
officials
blocked the entry of opposition poll watchers, and the
army and
police removed ballot boxes before voting ended. Reaction
to
these abuses was unusually angry. In Njazidja voters
smashed
ballot boxes rather than have them carted away by the
army; the
governor's office was set on fire in Nzwani, and a bomb
was found
outside the home of the minister of finance in Moroni.
More than
100 people were arrested following the election, and in
subsequent weeks the international media described a
deteriorating situation in the islands; the head of state
claimed
that France "authorizes terrorism in the Comoros," and
leaders of
the banned opposition in bold public statements questioned
the
legitimacy of the referendum.
President Abdallah was shot to death on the night of
November
26-27, reportedly while asleep in his residence, the Beit
el
Salama (House of Peace). At first his death was seen as a
logical
outcome of the tense political situation following what
was, in
effect, his self-appointment as head of state for life.
The
recently dismissed head of the Comoran military was duly
blamed
for the murder.
Evidence emerged subsequently that Abdallah's
assassination
resulted from the late president's proposed actions with
regard
to the GP. In September 1989, Abdallah had engaged a
French
military consultant, who determined that the GP should be
absorbed into the regular army. Following consultations
among
Abdallah, the French government, and South Africa's
Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, a decision was made to expel Denard and
his
fellow officers of the GP by the end of 1989. Denard and
his
second in command were seen walking with Abdallah only
hours
before he died. Although the mercenary initially blamed
the
assassination on the Comoran army, he later conceded that
he was
in Abdallah's office when the president was killed, but
called
the shooting "an accident due to the general state of
mayhem" in
the Beit al Salama
(see Political Dynamics
, this ch.).
Two days later, on November 29, the real reasons for
the
assassination emerged when Denard and the GP seized
control of
the government in a coup. Twenty-seven police officers
were
killed, hundreds of people were arrested, and all
journalists
were confined to their hotels. The mercenaries disarmed
the
regular army, ousted provisional president Haribon
Chebani, who
as chief of the Supreme Court had succeeded Abdallah, and
installed Mohamed Said Djohar, who just three days earlier
had
become chief of the Supreme Court, as Comoros' third
president in
less than a week.
The immediate reaction of the republic's two main
supporters,
France and South Africa, was to isolate Denard. South
Africa,
admitting years of funding of the GP, cut off all aid.
France
began a military build-up on Mahoré and likewise suspended
aid.
On December 7, anti-Denard demonstrations by about 1,000
students
and workers were violently broken up by the protests. By
then the
islands' school system had shut down, and the civil
service had
gone on strike. Faced with an untenable situation, Denard
surrendered to French forces without a fight on December
15.
Along with about two dozen comrades, he was flown to
Pretoria and
put under house arrest. The French government later
announced
that Denard would remain in detention in South Africa
pending the
outcome of a French judicial inquiry into Abdallah's
death. In
February 1993 he returned to France, where he was
initially
arrested, tried, and exonerated of involvement in the
death of
Abdallah.
Data as of August 1994
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