History of the Comoros (1978–1989) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros
1978 - 2001
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Udzima wa ya Masiwa
Location of the Comoros (circled)
Status	Islamic Republic
Capital	Moroni
Official languages	French, Comorian, Arabic
Religion	Islam
Demonym(s)	Comorian
President
• 1978-1989	Ahmed Abdallah
• 1999-2001	Azali Assoumani
ISO 3166 code	KM
Preceded by Succeeded by State of the Comoros Comoros
Today part of	Comoros

The Comoros is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, located off the eastern coast of Africa. France first took control of the Comoros in 1841. In 1973, France agreed that the Comoros would become independent in 1978. However, on July 6, 1975, the Comorian parliament decided to declare independence earlier. The representatives from Mayotte island, which stayed under French control, did not vote. People on the other three islands strongly supported becoming independent. Ahmed Abdallah announced the Comoros' independence on September 5, 1975, and became its first president.

In 1978, President Ali Soilih, who did not like France's influence, was removed from power. Ahmed Abdallah then became president. During Abdallah's time, a man named Bob Denard led the Presidential Guard (PG). He was very powerful and was supported by governments in South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). In return, these countries could set up a secret listening station on the islands. This station helped them listen to important groups in Africa and watch a war in Mozambique. The Comoros was also used to avoid rules about selling weapons.

When François Mitterrand became president of France in 1981, Denard lost support from France. But he made the connection between South Africa and the Comoros even stronger. Besides leading the Guard, Denard also started his own company, SOGECOM. This company worked in security and building. He seemed to be very wealthy. Between 1985 and 1987, the relationship between the Presidential Guard and the local Comorian people became difficult.

By the late 1980s, South Africa and France no longer wanted to support the mercenaries. President Abdallah also wanted them to leave. The mercenaries responded by taking control in a sudden change of government. President Abdallah died during this event, and Denard and his men were likely involved. The governments of South Africa and France then made Denard and his mercenaries leave the islands in 1989.

Abdallah's Return to Power

After a short temporary government, two men who helped with the change in leadership returned to Moroni. These were former president Ahmed Abdallah and former vice president Mohamed Ahmed. They had been living in Paris. They both became presidents for a short time, but soon Abdallah was named the only leader.

The continued presence of the mercenaries made it hard for Abdallah to bring stability to the Comoros. Bob Denard wanted to stay in the Comoros. He and his friends were given good jobs in the new government. Because Denard was involved, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) stopped the Comoros from being a member. Madagascar also ended its diplomatic ties. The United Nations (UN) even threatened to stop economic help. France also pushed for Denard to leave. In late September, he left the islands, but only for a short time.

Abdallah made his power stronger by writing a new constitution. This document mixed ideas of federalism (power shared with islands) and centralism (strong central government). It gave each island its own law-making body and control over local taxes. This might have been to encourage friendship with Mayotte. But it also gave the president strong powers. The constitution also made Islam the state religion again, but it respected the rights of people with other faiths. Over 99% of Comoran voters approved the new constitution in a vote on October 1, 1978. Later that month, Abdallah was elected president for six years. The country was now called the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros.

Even though Abdallah was president when the Comoros broke away from France in 1975, he now worked to build a better relationship with France. After Denard left, he gave a French military team the job of training the Comoros' defense force. He also signed an agreement allowing the French navy to use Comoran port facilities.

Abdallah used the Comoros' new presidential system to his advantage. He convinced the country's National Assembly to ban political parties for twelve years. This meant he was sure to be reelected in 1984. In 1979, his government arrested members of the previous government who had not already left or died during the 1978 change of power. Four former ministers disappeared and were believed to have been killed. About 300 other supporters were put in prison without a trial. For the next three years, trials happened sometimes, often only after France insisted on fair legal steps for the prisoners.

Abdallah also continued efforts to find new international support. Thanks to help from the European Community and Arab countries, the government began to improve roads, phones, and port facilities. They also accepted international aid for programs to grow more cash crops and food. Abdallah tried to keep good relationships with China, Nigeria, and Tanzania. He also visited Libya and the Persian Gulf states to expand the Comoros' connections in the Islamic world.

Despite international help, economic growth was slow. Some Comorans blamed the French, who had not yet given as much technical help as before 1975. Others thought Abdallah, who owned a large import-export company, was getting rich from the development efforts. They suspected Denard was helping him.

People started to oppose Abdallah's government as early as 1979. A group formed, mostly made of people living outside the country, called the United National Front of Comorians–Union of Comorians (FNUK or Unikom). In 1980, the Comoran ambassador to France, Said Ali Kemal, left his job to start another opposition group. A failed attempt to take over the government in February 1981 led to about forty arrests.

Regarding Mayotte, Abdallah did not do much more than verbally object to France's decision in 1979 to delay deciding the island's status until 1984. At the same time, he kept the possibility of Mayotte joining open. He did this by giving the other islands a lot of self-rule in the 1978 constitution. He also appointed a person from Mayotte as his finance minister. After setting up a government that seemed acceptable to people at home and abroad, Abdallah worked to keep himself in power. This involved policies that reduced the Comoros' independence.

Changes to the Political System

In February 1982, the Comoros became a one-party state. This meant that Abdallah's new party, the Comorian Union for Progress (UCP), was the only political party allowed. Even though people not in the party could run for local and national jobs, only the UCP could organize support for candidates. In the elections in March 1982, almost all of Abdallah's chosen UCP candidates won. UCP candidates also won most seats in the 1983 elections. Opposition candidates trying to run for island councils in July were removed from the lists by the government. Abdallah himself was elected for a second six-year term as head of state in September 1984. He won more than 99 percent of the votes as the only candidate. During the National Assembly elections on March 22, 1987, Abdallah's government arrested 400 people who were watching the polls for opposition groups. State radio first announced that one non-UCP person had been elected, but then changed the announcement the next day.

Abdallah also stopped opponents from competing with him in fair politics. He did this by changing his government often and by changing the 1978 constitution. For example, in 1985, Abdallah made a change to the constitution that got rid of the prime minister job. This made the president both the head of state and the head of government. This change reduced the power of Ali Mroudjae, who was the prime minister and a possible future president. Another change in 1985 took away many powers from the president of the National Assembly. This included his right to become temporary head of state if the president died. This right was given to the president of the Supreme Court, who was chosen by the head of state. This change affected assembly president Mohamed Taki Abdoulkarim, another person who was seen as a potential president.

Mroudjae's later career showed how Abdallah used frequent changes in his cabinet to remove possible challengers. Mroudjae's next job was to share duties as a minister with four other people. He was removed from the government completely in another change four months later.

As his second term was ending (and according to the constitution, it should have been his last), Abdallah created a group in 1988 to suggest changes to the constitution. These changes would allow him to run again in 1990. A vote on these changes was planned for November 4, 1989.

Abdallah's efforts to control the political process were made easier by a weak and divided opposition. Comoran politics meant that opposition came from many strong personalities. As these leaders gained or lost influence, groups formed and then quickly broke apart. This led to distrust and doubt. The ban on opposition political groups at home, enforced by the Presidential Guard (GP) and the Comoran military, also made it harder to organize against the president. The French government's unhappiness with Comoran exiles in Paris also made things harder for the opposition.

Since there was no strong reason to oppose the government based on ideas, some opposition leaders were willing to work with the president if it seemed to help them personally. For example, Mouzaoir Abdallah, a leader of an opposition group, appeared with the president at independence day celebrations in July 1988. There were rumors that he might become prime minister again. In September 1988, another opposition leader, Said Hachim, agreed to join the group considering changes to the constitution.

The reputation of Abdallah's opponents was also harmed by one opposition leader, former ambassador to France Said Ali Kemal. He tried to hire mercenaries to help overthrow Abdallah's government. Six of these mercenaries were arrested in Australia in late 1983. They gave statements that made Kemal look bad.

Mercenary Influence

Abdallah used the Presidential Guard (GP), led by Bob Denard, to support his political actions. Many of the same mercenaries who helped him gain power in 1978 were officers in the GP. Denard also became very involved in Comoran businesses. Sometimes he worked with President Abdallah or helped South African businesses, which became more important in the Comoran economy during Abdallah's time.

Even though Denard had officially left the Comoros after the 1978 change of government, by the early 1980s he was openly active on the islands again. The GP had between 300 and 700 members, mostly Comorans. They were led by about thirty French and Belgian mercenaries. These were often Denard's friends from conflicts after World War II. The GP only answered to the president. They operated outside the normal chain of command of the French-trained 1,000-member Comoran Armed Forces. This caused anger among the regular military, Comoran citizens, and other African countries.

The main jobs of the GP were to protect the president and stop attempts to overthrow his government. During the July 1983 elections, the GP beat and arrested people protesting the one-party system. During the National Assembly elections in March 1987, the GP, known as les affreux ("the frighteners"), replaced hundreds of opposition poll watchers who had been arrested by the army. On March 8, 1985, a serious attempt to overthrow Abdallah's government began. It was a rebellion by about thirty Comoran troops of the GP against their European officers. These unhappy guards had connections to the Democratic Front (FD), a banned political party. The rebellion was quickly stopped. Three rebellious guards were killed, and the rest were captured.

President Abdallah used this uprising to arrest people who disagreed with him, mostly FD members. The FD leaders said they were not involved in the coup attempt. Later in 1985, seventy-seven people were found guilty. Seventeen, including the FD's leader, Mustapha Said Cheikh, were sentenced to life in prison with hard labor. Most prisoners were released in 1986 after Amnesty International reported illegal arrests, torture, and other abuses. France also put pressure on the government by temporarily stopping new aid projects and purchases of Comoran vanilla.

Perhaps the most well-known action of the GP for Abdallah's government happened in November 1987. After an apparent attempt by people to free some political prisoners, which Abdallah's government quickly called a coup attempt, the GP arrested fourteen suspected plotters. Seven of them died after being tortured. Comoran government officials were apparently not allowed to be part of the prisoners' questioning. President Abdallah was visiting Egypt at the time.

With Abdallah's agreement, Denard and the other GP officers used their connections to the president to become important in the Comoran economy. Denard partly owned Établissements Abdallah et Fils, the Comoros' largest import-export company, which President Abdallah mostly owned. Denard also owned and ran a very profitable shipping service between South Africa and the Comoros. He also owned Sogecom, a private security company with contracts to protect South African hotels being built on the islands.

The GP officers, who supported South Africa's apartheid government, helped bring South African money and influence to the Comoros. A South African trade representative admitted that some of his country's projects, like a large experimental farm, housing, road building, and a medical evacuation program, were arranged and managed by guard officers at the mercenaries' request.

The GP also arranged for South African planes to fly in the Middle East and parts of Africa using the Comoran national airline's name. This went against international rules against South Africa. Also, the GP allowed South Africa to use Comoran land to gather information in the Mozambique Channel and to send weapons to rebels in Mozambique. It was widely known that South Africa funded the GP with about US$3 million per year.

Comoros' Economy Under Abdallah

President Abdallah often put his own interests before the country's when making economic decisions. This led to the Comoros becoming a country that relied heavily on foreign aid. Its small and unpredictable earnings from cash crops were not enough.

Throughout the 1980s, money earned from the Comoros' four main cash crops—vanilla, ylang-ylang, cloves, and copra—went through big ups and downs. This was due to weather, market prices, or simply a steady decline. The government's main response was for the president to use his diplomatic skills to get loans and aid from many governments and international groups. The main helpers were France, South Africa, the European Community, Arab states, the World Bank, and regional financial groups.

Some of this help went to truly valuable projects, like creating independent news media and improving phone connections with the outside world. However, much of the aid was questionable. For example, loans and grants helped the country pay its many government workers. Other projects, like building a seaport at Mutsamudu, paved ring roads linking coastal towns, and power stations, were built without local development. This meant there was little local business to benefit from the new roads, electricity, and port facilities.

Bringing in huge amounts of building materials and equipment immediately helped import-export companies on the islands. Abdallah's company was the largest. Meanwhile, these projects were not immediately useful to most Comorans and would likely be underused for many years.

During Abdallah's time, rice imports used up as much as 50 percent of the Comoros' export earnings. Projects to grow more food for the country failed to use the help given by international sponsors. The president and vanilla growers resisted international pressure to use land for growing corn and rice instead of vanilla. He also did not follow the World Bank's advice to put taxes on imported rice. Abdallah's import-export company was very involved in selling vanilla and importing rice from the Far East at three times its original price.

Abdallah's company also made money from managing the import of materials used by South African companies building tourist hotels. Little of the material used in these resorts came from the Comoros. Also, once finished, the resorts would be almost entirely owned and managed by non-Comorans. Tourism, mainly from South Africans who were not welcome in other African resorts, was seen as the only promising new industry. But Abdallah guided its development so that few Comorans, other than himself and his partners, benefited from the resorts.

Under Abdallah, the Comoran economy ended the 1980s much like it started: poor, undeveloped, and dependent on cash crops with uncertain and generally falling value. The big difference was that the country was now deeply in debt. By 1988, 80 percent of the yearly government spending was paid for by outside aid.

Abdallah's Final Days in 1989

Just weeks before the end of Abdallah's government in late 1989, it was noted that the "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 vote on November 4, 1989, about changes to the constitution that would let President Abdallah run for a third term, human rights were still a concern. The only way for most islanders to get ahead financially was through government jobs, but these faced cuts due to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Even those who kept their government jobs were not guaranteed financial security. As often happened when export earnings dropped, government workers had not been paid since mid-summer.

The official result of the vote was that 92.5 percent supported the changes Abdallah proposed. One opposition leader warned that this created "the conditions for a life presidency." The voting was marked by the usual government manipulation. Opposition groups reported that voting places did not have private booths, government officials blocked opposition poll watchers, and the army and police removed ballot boxes before voting ended. People reacted with unusual anger to these abuses. In Njazidja, voters broke ballot boxes rather than let the army take them away. The governor's office was set on fire in Nzwani, and a bomb was found outside the finance minister's home in Moroni. More than 100 people were arrested after the election. In the following weeks, international news described a worsening situation. The head of state claimed that France "authorizes terrorism in the Comoros," and leaders of the banned opposition openly questioned if the vote was fair.

President Abdallah died on the night of November 26–27. Reports said he was shot while asleep in his home, the Beit el Salama (House of Peace). At first, his death was seen as a result of the tense political situation after he effectively made himself president for life. The recently dismissed head of the Comoran military was blamed for the killing.

Later, evidence showed that Abdallah's death was connected to his plans for the Presidential Guard (GP). In September 1989, Abdallah hired a French military expert. This expert decided that the GP should become part of the regular army. After discussions between Abdallah, the French government, and South Africa's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was decided that Denard and his GP officers would be expelled by the end of 1989. Denard and his second-in-command were seen walking with Abdallah just hours before he died. Although the mercenary first blamed the Comoran army for the death, he later admitted he was in Abdallah's office when the president died. He called the shooting "an accident due to the general state of mayhem" in the Beit al Salama.

Two days later, on November 29, the real reasons for the death became clear when Denard and the GP took control of the government in a sudden change of power. Twenty-seven police officers were killed, hundreds of people were arrested, and all journalists were kept in their hotels. The mercenaries took weapons from the regular army. They removed temporary president Haribon Chebani, who had become president after Abdallah's death. They then put Mohamed Said Djohar, who had just become chief of the Supreme Court three days earlier, in power as the Comoros' third president in less than a week.

The immediate reaction of the country's two main supporters, France and South Africa, was to isolate Denard. South Africa admitted years of funding the GP and stopped all aid. France began to build up its military on Mayotte and also stopped aid. On December 7, about 1,000 students and workers protested against Denard. The protests were violently broken up. By then, the islands' schools had closed, and government workers were on strike. Faced with a difficult situation, Denard surrendered to French forces without a fight on December 15. He and about two dozen of his friends were flown to Pretoria and placed under house arrest. The French government later announced that Denard would stay in detention in South Africa while a French legal investigation into Abdallah's death took place. In February 1993, he returned to France, where he was arrested, tried, and found not guilty of involvement in Abdallah's death.