ClariNet story GBISSAU-CASAMANCE from AFP Guinea-Bissau soldiers push Casamance refugees back to Senegal Copyright 2001 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) / Thu, 24 May 2001 11:30:12 PDT ZINGUINCHOR, Senegal, May 24 (AFP) - Guinea-Bissau authorities backed by soldiers have violently forced about a thousand Casamance refugees north into Senegal, witnesses said Thursday. Government troops began forcing the refugees back to Senegal on May 18 after razing their houses and slaughtering their livestock. Witnesses said that some of those pushed out had been there for 10 years. Village chiefs in the Sao Domingos zone near the Senegalese border, where many of the refugees has lived to escape fighting to the north, told the refugees to "find another safe haven," departing refugees told AFP. The refugees said that the villages of Sounkutoto, Bufa, HLM, Madina and Nhambalang have been emptied. The refugees came from Senegal's southern Casamance province, where armed separatists have been fighting for 19 years. In Sounkutoto, refugees said that soldiers had burned 11 houses and supplies of food and clothes to flush out Casamance Movement of Democratic Forces (MFDC) rebels who led the struggle against Senegal's government. But refugees explained that the rebels only retreated to their rear base when army reinforcements arrived, firing rifles and RP-G7 shells. "We have always told MFDC fighters that our territory is not Casamance; we have asked refugees to denounce the rebels hiding amongst them," Major Texas, the Guinea-Bissau officer leading the operation, told AFP. Texas added that the refugees have always refused to cooperate and have become "victims of their collusion" with the rebels. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade signed two peace pacts with veteran MFDC leader Augustin Diamacoune Senghor in March, although renegade rebel factions have continued to fight, killing about 30 people this year. Relief organizations in Dakar have estimated there are about 7,500 Senegalese refugees from the southern province of Casamance in Guinea-Bissau. About 900 of them were desperate to get back to Ziguinchor, according to corroborating sources. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------