Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
Consistent with the mandate it received as coordinator of the regional contact group on the Comoros, at the OAU Summit in Burkina Faso in June this year, South Africa will coordinate a fact-finding mission to the Comoros from 9-11 December 1998. The OAU mission will include one representative each from the governments of South Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Kenya and Tanzania.
Following the clashes by secessionists on the island of Anjouan, which lead to several deaths over the weekend, the mission will visit Grande Comoros under the auspices of the OAU's Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution and make recommendations for consideration by the OAU Summit meeting of the OAU Central Organ in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on 17 December 1998.
Since the islands of Anjouan and Moheli declared unilateral independence from the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros in August last year, the OAU has consistently urged all parties to resolve their dispute peacefully and it has also reaffirmed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Comoran archipelago. The OAU has had a small military observer mission on the islands of Grande Comoros and Moheli for the past year.
ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS PRETORIA 8 DECEMBER 1998