From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Mr Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS: SENEGAL: SEPARATISM IN THE SOUTH ADDS TO PRE-ELECTION
Originator: barnhart@gagme
Organization: Evanston, Illinois
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 23:23:27 GMT

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: SENEGAL: SEPARATISM IN THE SOUTH ADDS TO PRE-ELECTION CONCERNS


an inter press service feature

by peter da costa

banjul, sep 29 (ips) -- as hustings for national elections get
underway in senegal, concern is mounting that renewed violence
in the country's volatile south may hamper the government's
plans to stage a trouble-free ballot.

a quarter of senegal's eight million citizens are due to cast
their votes early next year in what will be the first test of a
new electoral code drafted by president abdou diouf and his
ruling socialist party (ps).

diouf, prime minister of the french-speaking country for
10 years before becoming president in 1980, bowed to opposition
demands to reform the electoral system after allegations he had
rigged his victory in 1988.

by lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, instituting a
secret ballot system and promising the country's 16 opposition
parties equal access to the state-run media, diouf hopes to
avoid a repeat of the violent civil unrest the last election
sparked.

figures released wednesday confirm fears that voter apathy
will affect the legitimacy of next year's presidential and
legislative polls.

the figures also show the dramatic effect on registration of
clashes between government forces and armed separatists in
casamance, the fertile agricultural breadbasket divided from the
north by a sliver of land that is the former british colony of
the gambia.

statistics indicate senegalese have been slow to respond to
the suffrage call. as a result, a sep. 24 deadline for
extraordinary voter registration has been extended for a further
three weeks.

this is the second time interior minister madieng khary dieng
has bowed to opposition pressure and shifted the registration
goalposts. the original deadline was jul. 24.

the decision, say analysts, was largely influenced by the
deteriorating situation in southern senegal, where an upsurge in
the activities of the movement of the democratic forces of
casamanche (mfdc) activity has shattered the calm brought about
by a may 1991 cease-fire. (more/ips)


senegal: separatism (2)

fighting came to a head sep. 1 when government troops killed
mfdc separatists and injured 60 others after walking into a rebel
ambush at kaguitt, a village on the border with guinea-bissau to the
south of regional capital, ziguinchor. two soldiers died in the
battle.

the kaguitt incident has led to calls for an accelerated
negotiated settlement of the crisis which has progressively
escalated over the last decade.

the central government in dakar (the senegalese capital)
insists the mfdc demand for independence is a pipe dream.

amath dansokho, leader of the independence and labour party
(pit), who is a minister in diouf's coalition cabinet, sees
accords between the government and the mfdc as the best way
forward.

dansokho blames the violence on armed gangs ''working for
international crooks who want to open a corridor for
smuggling''.

dansokho, who has said his party will back diouf at the
polls, believes mediation must be applied to the problem. ''for
us in the pit. there are no other solutions than negotiated
ones. there's no place for terrorism''.

over the past year a government-appointed peace committee led
by a casamancais democratic socialist party (pds)
parliamentarian, has been working on a formula for lasting peace
in the region, amid repeated bloody incidents linked to
separatism.

diouf, who was attending the non-aligned summit in indonesia
at the time kaguitt erupted, said on his return home he was
willing to talk to separatist leaders.

but may politicians feel the government is not committed to
engaging the mfdc in genuine dialogue without preconditions.

new figures show casamance's ziguinchor region, where
separatism has its roots, is trailing registration countrywide
with 14,481 new voters, compared to relatively high figures in
neighbouring separatist-free regions of kolda and tambacounda.

since many constituencies in the south are strongholds of the
main opposition pds, diouf will be keen to give casamancais
every opportunity to vote.

with opposition disunity and general ballot fatigue, it is
widely thought diouf will win the feb. 21 presidential poll and
his party will maintain its majority in the 120-member national
assembly.

what is of major concern to the government is the seemingly
intractable casamance separatist problem which may be the
biggest threat to senegal's democracy since independence in
1960. (end/ips/pdc/apc/92)
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