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 _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------