ZIGUINCHOR, Senegal, Nov 29 (AFP) - The veteran leader of
southern Senegal's rebel movement, Father Augustin Diamacoune, said
Friday he would not give up his 20-year struggle for independence
for his home region of Casamance.
The ageing head of the Casamance Movement of Democratic Forces
(MFDC), which has for two decades been waging a low-level war
against the government in Dakar, said his principal concern was to
"silence the guns on both sides".
"Casamance has been struggling for four and a half centuries,"
he said.
"The people of Casamance are perfectly within their rights. I
can't tell them to stop," he told AFP.
"I cannot take that responsibility ... Senegal should withdraw
its troops. We can't give up," he said.
Diamacoune, 76, admitted talks to try to end the conflict had
foundered partly because the MFDC was deeply split.
Since the MFDC launched its rebellion 20 years ago, hundreds of
people have been killed and thousands have fled their homes. Many
recent attacks have been banditry rather than secessionist
activity.
The conflict has also frozen the region's development, in
particular growth in the tourism industry.
Several ceasefire agreements have been reached between the
rebels and Dakar, but none have been respected.
Casamance is virtually cut off from the rest of Senegal by the
Gambia, a narrow country that straddles the river by the same name
and juts from the Atlantic into the middle of Senegal.
The MFDC, which has a majority Dioula population, has complained
that it is exploited and neglected by other ethnic groups from the
largely Muslim north.
Many people from the region died when a ferry that plied the
route between Ziguinchor and Dakar capsized offshore Gambia on
September 26, killing around 1,000 people.
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