ClariNet story SENEGAL-CASAMANCE from AFP

Casamance separatists postpone peace forum after clashes
Copyright 2001 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) / Fri, 25 May 2001
9:00:10 PDT

ZIGUINCHOR, Senegal, May 25 (AFP) - Armed separatists in Senegal's Casamance
province, who have split over a peace pact with the government, have postponed
a key policy forum because of fighting, their leader said Friday.

Augustin Diamacoune Senghor, the veteran leader of the Casamance Movement of
Democratic Forces (MFDC), told AFP that a reconciliation forum among rival
rebel factions on the "definitive search" for peace was indefinitely delayed.

Diamacoune's announcement came in the wake of clashes among rival MFDC groups
and between Casamance fighters and troops of neighbouring Guinea-Bissau in the
border area.

A Roman Catholic priest who has headed the separatist movement during a 19-year
campaign in the southern province, Diamacoune said that the talks, due to have
been held in Gambia from Monday to Wednesday, were postponed because of
"differences within the MFDC" and "the situation on the ground".

Guinea-Bissau government troops this week forced more than 1,000 refugees back
to Senegal on May 18 after razing their houses and slaughtering their
livestock, witnesses said Thursday.

An army officer said the aim was to flush out rebels from across the border and
urged refugees to denounce armed fighters, but local people said the MFDC
forces had retreated to their bases when military reinforcements arrived with
automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade in March signed two peace pacts with
Diamacoune and has also sought to firm up good relations with the authorities
in Guinea-Bissau and in Gambia, an enclaved country which cuts Casamance off
from northern Senegal.

However, the MFDC leader is himself contested by radicals reluctant to lay down
their arms and who have killed about 30 people since the beginning of the year
in ambushes on roads in the province.

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