The rebel leader of the Comoros island of Anjouan, Mohamed Bacar, arrived in Reunion yesterday to an uncertain future, two days after his ouster by Comoran and African Union forces.
He was flown in on a French military C-160 Transall plane from Mayotte, another French possession in the Indian Ocean, where Bacar asked for asylum after being driven off Anjouan on Wednesday.
Twenty-three Anjouan soldiers accompanied him on the flight to Reunion.
French officials had declared on Thursday that, upon his arrival in Reunion, Bacar would be placed under investigation for landing illegally on Mayotte in possession of weapons.
At the same time, they were weighing whether to grant his asylum request.
In the Comoros capital of Moroni, security forces on Thursday used tear gas to disperse 1,000 people trying to march on the French embassy demanding that Bacar be sent back to face trial on charges of torturing opponents.
Groups of youths made renewed attempts to reach the embassy and were again fought back by police, while Comoran Defense Minister Mohamed Bacar Dossar demanded that France hand over the French-trained officer.
"We understand the disappointment of our Comoran brothers, we will do everything we can to ensure that Bacar and his accomplices are brought back and sent to court in the Comoros," Dossar said.
A Frenchman who heads a primary school in Moroni was attacked by a mob as he headed to work, a French diplomat said. He was not seriously wounded.
Anjouan exiles also staged angry protests in Mayotte on Thursday in which cars were burned and houses damaged, witnesses said.
Bacar defied months of warnings to end his self-proclaimed presidency of Anjouan -- the third largest island in the Comoros archipelago -- before he was finally ousted on Tuesday by the invasion force.
The Comoran Human Rights Foundation called on France to extradite the ousted rebel leader immediately.
The group urged France "to prove its solidarity with Comoros and the Comoran people by extraditing him without delay and avoiding bothersome administrative and diplomatic procedures."
Yves Jego, the French secretary of state for overseas territories, said France was studying Bacar's request for political asylum and an answer would be given "as fast as possible, I hope."
In parallel to the asylum request, "Mr Bacar will be the subject of appropriate judicial procedures," foreign ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani told journalists in Paris.
French security forces guarded the main Pamandzi airport on Mayotte where Bacar was taken on Thursday and closed off the road linking it to the main police station where several angry Anjouan exiles had gathered.
Demonstrators hurled stones at cars belonging to French nationals and two were injured, witnesses said. Exiles said they were outraged at the protection given to Bacar, who faces accusations of torturing his opponents.
Mayotte is in the same chain of islands as the Comoros, but opted to remain French when the Comoros became independent in 1975. Bacar and 23 soldiers and associates, arrived there on Wednesday and sought refuge with a brother.
Bacar "entered Mayotte illegally where he was immediately apprehended and disarmed by the French authorities," Andreani said in Paris.
France backed the invasion by 1,400 Comoran and African Union troops and loaned the AU force the ships used to take them to Anjouan at dawn, but it has no extradition agreement with the Comoros.
The Comoran and African Union forces battled die-hard supporters of Bacar on Wednesday as the central government vowed to set up an interim administration on Anjouan this week.
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