Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo called on all Comorans to recommit themselves to finding a lasting solution to the problems facing the archipelago.
Minister Nzo made this appeal when he opened a regional ministerial meeting on the Comoros in Pretoria today. The meeting is being chaired by Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, Secretary General of the OAU, and includes ministerial delegations from the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles and South Africa. Delegations from Algeria, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso, in their capacity as the Troika of the OAU, are also participating.
The meeting has been convened at the request of the Prime Minister of the Comoros, Mr Abbas Djoussuf, to discuss ways of breaking the impasse created when the islands of Anjouan and Moheli declared secession from the Comoran archipelego in 1997. The meeting will examine ways of implementing recent OAU decisions to hold an inter-island conference which will address the constitutional concerns of the parties involved in the current dispute. The holding of a donor conference to assist in alleviating the deteriorating socio-economic situation on the islands will also be discussed.
ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
PRETORIA
28 JANUARY 1999