by Annie Thomas

   ZIGUINCHOR, Senegal, Dec 17 (AFP) - Many questions remain unanswered
after
Saturday's first face-to-face encounter between the Senegalese government
and
Casamance separatists, including the most important one: why did the meeting
last just 50 minutes?
   "Why is it finished already?" residents of Ziguinchor, the capital of the
disputed Casamance province, were asking Sunday.
   The much-heralded meeting between the government and the Movement of
Democratic Forces (MFDC) to end 18 years of fighting had been expected to
see
the start of full-scale negotiations on an 11-point peace plan.
   Among issues that had been up for discussion were the future of army
bases,
the freeing of prisoners, the return of displaced people, and the
implementation of development projects in Casamance province.
   But after ceremonial proceedings in the local headquarters of the Roman
Catholic Church lasting less than an hour, the gathering broke up and
delegates left as abruptly as they had arrived.
   After 18 years of armed rebellion, and numerous peace accords which have
all been scrapped, no one had been expecting immediate peace.
   But after Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade had declared a public
holiday
when he announced the talks, a little more had been expected than a short,
albeit colourful, ceremony in a church building.
   The fact that the encounter took place in Ziguinchor was in itself a
small
victory for Wade. The MFDC had initially demanded that negotiations should
take place on neutral territory.
   But apparently, the separatists only accepted Ziguinchor on condition
that
the meeting would take the form of "a simple protocol ceremony", as MFDC
Father Augustin Diamacoune described it on Saturday.
   Even the actual venue in Ziguinchor became the subject of intensive
discussions, and eventually the church headquarters, which in any case
proved
too small for the gathering, was chosen.
   During the ceremony, Senegalese Interior Minister Mamadou Niang read out
a
message from Wade in which the president described the meeting as "historic"
and called on all parties to work for a "peaceful, just and lasting"
solution.
   Diamacoune repeated his commitment to peace, saying that "Casamance does
not want war."
   Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands more displaced in the
conflict, which began in 1982.
   Participants then announced that contacts between the two sides would
continue and a further meeting would take place at a date and venue to be
decided.
   They then left, without issuing so much as a joint statement.
   A source close to the talks said that in informal discussions between the
two sides ahead of Saturday's meeting, a "minor setback" had been
encountered,
but that this was not enough to affect the commitment of the two sides to
work
for peace.
   According to MFDC official spokesman Alexandre Djiba, "the (high-jump)
bar
was placed too high."
   He acknowledged there had been differences within the movement over the
use
of Ziguinchor as a venue for the talks.
   The next step, he said, was for all the various branches of the MFDC --
internal and external, combattant and political -- to hold a meeting so that
the movement could begin to speak with one common voice.
   at/bp/ss

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