Peace Agreement Addresses Afar Discontent

UN Integrated Regional Information Network (Nairobi), 14 May
2001

DJIBOUTI, 14 May (IRIN)—The Djibouti government and the radical
wing of the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Peace (FRUD) signed
an agreement on Saturday, 12 May, which observers say aims to put an
end to the uneasy aftermath of the Afar insurgency in northern and
south-western Djibouti.

The agreement was signed by Djibouti Interior Minister Abdallah
Abdillahi Miguil and FRUD leader Ahmed Dini.

In a speech delivered at the signing ceremony at the Djibouti
Conference Centre, known as the Palais du Peuple, Dini said the accord
was to enshrine peace in our political environment. Ahmed Dini
led a three-year long Afar insurgency in northern Djibouti from 1991
to 1994, after which the moderate wing of the party signed an
agreement with the government.

Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh attended the ceremony, and
said the agreement would close a sad chapter in Djibouti’s
history. The head of state pledged that never again will
Djibouti experience another conflict of this nature and magnitude.

The two sides refused to give details of the peace agreement, but at a
press conference held shortly after the ceremony, Dini told
journalists that it was centred on decentralisation. He said the
government had agreed to the setting up of more representative local
bodies, and had promised to introduce an unrestricted multi-party
system by September. Djibouti’s current multiparty apparatus
is confined to only four registered parties, which included the ruling
Rassemblement Populaire pour le Progres, and the moderate wing of
FRUD.

Part of the deal involves the reconstruction and rehabilitation of
areas and populations affected by the conflict, a local journalist
told IRIN. International support—possibly from the European
Union—would be sought for the demobilisation of FRUD fighters,
the journalist said.

Dini did not rule out the possibility that some senior members of his
organisation might join the Djibouti government in a pending cabinet
reshuffle. Answering questions on the relationship of the radical wing
with the moderate wing of FRUD, Dini said that, since the signing of
the agreement, we are a political organisation fending for
itself. Two leaders of the moderate wing of FRUD hold prominent
positions in government, with Ali Muhammad Daoud as minister of
agriculture, and Ougoureh Kifle Ahmed as minister of defence.

Local political sources told IRIN that the peace agreement ended 15
months of secret talks, which were a follow-up to an earlier peace
deal signed by the Djibouti government and Ahmed Dini’s FRUD in
Paris on 7 February 2000. Since the outbreak of the Afar insurgency,
the government had pursued a reconciliation process with the two
different FRUD groups, spanning about eight years of negotiations, the
source said. The moderate FRUD group was the first to reach agreement
with the central authority on 26 December 1994.

FRUD took up arms against the Djibouti government in 1991 to press the
demands of the Afar—who constitute one of the country’s
two indigenous ethnic groups. The radical wing of FRUD said the action
was in protest against what it considered the hegemonic drive of the
Somali-speaking tribes.