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The Comoros Islands- a jewel in the Indian Ocean. Ivory beaches, palm trees swaying in the breezes, strange and rare animals such as the Coelacanth living fossil fish. This place has all the ingredients to be a dream holiday destination. So why is it that tourists rarely go there, unlike its more glamorous neighbours in the Seychelles, or Zanzibar?
The answer is simple. It's a dangerous and unstable ****-hole that's been thoroughly ****ed over by mercenaries, commies, tyrants and the French. It's been nicknamed "Coup-Coup Land", because there's been over 20 coups in the nation since independence in 1975. It's also been invaded by France twice. This is a country that's been relentlessly buggered by crap politics to the extent that it's almost starting to rival Paraguay.
There has been no shortage of ruthless and murderous bastards who've helped propagate this situation, but one man stands head and shoulders over the rest. Step forward "Colonel" Bob Denard.
Bobe Denard was born Gilbert Bourgeaud in Bordeaux, 1929. A former vacuum cleaner salesman, he fought in the French army in Morocco and Indochina before becoming one of the most active and prminent mercenaries of the 20th century. He fought private wars in Yemen, Zimbabwe, Iran, Nigeria, Benin, Angola, Congo, and Gabon- most of these were typically actions against "Marxists", though in practice "Marxist" seemed to be the label attached to anyone objecting to colonial rulership who happened to be a shade darker than white. Denard, and his fellow mercenaries, have to shoulder a considerable portion of blame for the political destabilisation across sub-Saharan Africa in the 1960's and 1970's. We can only guess at the death-toll directly or indirectly caused by this.
By 1974, Denard was ready to live the mercenary's dream- retire to a private kingdom somewhere sunny. He wound up in the Comoros. Between 1974 and 1975 the first President, Ahmed Abdallah Abderamane, was deposed by Ali Solih. Solih introduced modernising, left-wing rule to the Comoros- he started out promisingly as a down-to-earth populist attempting to install secular government in an Islamic nation, but became increasingly unhinged and despotic. By 1978 he was a despot who had appointed a 15 year old to run the police department, burnt all government records, and after a witch doctor told him he would be killed by a white man with a black dog, he killed every black dog on the island. He was also strongly-opposed to the French and French colonial influences.
At this point, I'm going to hand over to an extract from a report from Eric Margolis. A word of warning- it's a trifle biased, but worth reading anyway-
"In 1978 a young lunatic named Ali Solih seized power in the Comoros, an obscure, former French colony of no importance. Solih subjected its 500,000 black, mainly Muslim inhabitants to a reign of terror. He put teenage thugs in charge of every organ of government. A 15-year old headed the police. Gangs of armed teenagers drank, raped and looted.
Comoran businessmen hired Denard to get rid of the madman Solih, setting up a war chest of some $6 million. Denard recruited old comrades from the Congo, bought an old rustbucket freighter, and stocked up on arms. He eluded agents of France's domestic security agency, the DST, and the foreign spy agency, SDECE, who had caught wind of the plot.
After a long voyage around Africa, Denard and his men landed from rubber boats late at night outside Moroni. President Solih was lounging in his palace's bedroom, with three, naked, barely pubescent girls, popping bennies, smoking hashish, and watching a porno-flick - when Col. Bob kicked down his bedroom door. A short burst from Denard's submachine gun finished off the teenage tyrant.
Next morning, Denard draped Saleh's riddled body over the fender of a jeep and drove slowly through Moroni, as crowds cheered and acclaimed him as their saviour and king."
A lot of that is true- the drugs, the corruption, the underaged totty and porn, etc. However, Margolis neglects to mention one very important fact. It was Denard who put Solih in power in the first place, and he had been present in Comoros throughout Solih's reign working for him and keeping him in power. Rather than this being some heroic act of liberation by a moral crusader, the real reason Denard turned against Solih is that Solih had refused to pay Denard the remainder of the millions promised to him for orchestrating the 1975 coup that installed Solih. It's also kind of tricky taking Debard seriously as a white knight of sexual probity when you consider the fact that he is a seven-times bigamist....
Denard effectively ruled Comoros from then on, with the reinstalled Abderamane as a puppet President. He became rich through funds from the French government (for protecting French interests in the area) until 1981, then from apartheid-era South Africa for spying on ANC bases and monitoring the war in Mozambique. He also turned the Comoros into a gun-running centre to deliver arms to the Iraq Ba'athists. It all went wrong in 1989- Abderamane was about to sack and arrest Denard for corruption, but Denard launched his third coup and murdered the President. Two days later, on November 29, the real reasons for the assassination emerged when Denard and the GP seized control of the government in a coup. Twenty-seven police officers were killed, hundreds of people were arrested, and all journalists were confined to their hotels. The mercenaries disarmed the regular army, ousted provisional president Haribon Chebani,and installed another puppet. However, massive public demonstration arose following boycotts from the international community, and Denard was overthrown by the French and South African governments.
In 1995 the old bastard was back again, invading the islands with a mercenary force- this time without French backing. He overthrew the elected government, but was himself toppled by a French invasion involving 600 commando troops. This time he was gone for good- arrested and hauled off for trial in France for allegedly murdering Abderamane. From the BBC-
"According to Mr Denard, President Abdallah's bodyguard, Abdallah Jaffar, burst into the room and fired at him, but the bullets accidentally hit the president. Mr Jaffar was in turn shot dead by Mr Denard.
Mr Denard said he was a close friend of President Abdallah.
"I was a soldier. I was never a killer," he told the court in a final plea on Wednesday."
He was found not guilty due to lack of evidence.
So has Comoros been at peace so then? Nope. Coups and strife galore. Since 1974, it's seen 20 coups, three secessions, two Presidential assassinations and four invasions. If you're planning on going, pack a kevlar vest along with your factor-20.
The answer is simple. It's a dangerous and unstable ****-hole that's been thoroughly ****ed over by mercenaries, commies, tyrants and the French. It's been nicknamed "Coup-Coup Land", because there's been over 20 coups in the nation since independence in 1975. It's also been invaded by France twice. This is a country that's been relentlessly buggered by crap politics to the extent that it's almost starting to rival Paraguay.
There has been no shortage of ruthless and murderous bastards who've helped propagate this situation, but one man stands head and shoulders over the rest. Step forward "Colonel" Bob Denard.
Bobe Denard was born Gilbert Bourgeaud in Bordeaux, 1929. A former vacuum cleaner salesman, he fought in the French army in Morocco and Indochina before becoming one of the most active and prminent mercenaries of the 20th century. He fought private wars in Yemen, Zimbabwe, Iran, Nigeria, Benin, Angola, Congo, and Gabon- most of these were typically actions against "Marxists", though in practice "Marxist" seemed to be the label attached to anyone objecting to colonial rulership who happened to be a shade darker than white. Denard, and his fellow mercenaries, have to shoulder a considerable portion of blame for the political destabilisation across sub-Saharan Africa in the 1960's and 1970's. We can only guess at the death-toll directly or indirectly caused by this.
By 1974, Denard was ready to live the mercenary's dream- retire to a private kingdom somewhere sunny. He wound up in the Comoros. Between 1974 and 1975 the first President, Ahmed Abdallah Abderamane, was deposed by Ali Solih. Solih introduced modernising, left-wing rule to the Comoros- he started out promisingly as a down-to-earth populist attempting to install secular government in an Islamic nation, but became increasingly unhinged and despotic. By 1978 he was a despot who had appointed a 15 year old to run the police department, burnt all government records, and after a witch doctor told him he would be killed by a white man with a black dog, he killed every black dog on the island. He was also strongly-opposed to the French and French colonial influences.
At this point, I'm going to hand over to an extract from a report from Eric Margolis. A word of warning- it's a trifle biased, but worth reading anyway-
"In 1978 a young lunatic named Ali Solih seized power in the Comoros, an obscure, former French colony of no importance. Solih subjected its 500,000 black, mainly Muslim inhabitants to a reign of terror. He put teenage thugs in charge of every organ of government. A 15-year old headed the police. Gangs of armed teenagers drank, raped and looted.
Comoran businessmen hired Denard to get rid of the madman Solih, setting up a war chest of some $6 million. Denard recruited old comrades from the Congo, bought an old rustbucket freighter, and stocked up on arms. He eluded agents of France's domestic security agency, the DST, and the foreign spy agency, SDECE, who had caught wind of the plot.
After a long voyage around Africa, Denard and his men landed from rubber boats late at night outside Moroni. President Solih was lounging in his palace's bedroom, with three, naked, barely pubescent girls, popping bennies, smoking hashish, and watching a porno-flick - when Col. Bob kicked down his bedroom door. A short burst from Denard's submachine gun finished off the teenage tyrant.
Next morning, Denard draped Saleh's riddled body over the fender of a jeep and drove slowly through Moroni, as crowds cheered and acclaimed him as their saviour and king."
A lot of that is true- the drugs, the corruption, the underaged totty and porn, etc. However, Margolis neglects to mention one very important fact. It was Denard who put Solih in power in the first place, and he had been present in Comoros throughout Solih's reign working for him and keeping him in power. Rather than this being some heroic act of liberation by a moral crusader, the real reason Denard turned against Solih is that Solih had refused to pay Denard the remainder of the millions promised to him for orchestrating the 1975 coup that installed Solih. It's also kind of tricky taking Debard seriously as a white knight of sexual probity when you consider the fact that he is a seven-times bigamist....
Denard effectively ruled Comoros from then on, with the reinstalled Abderamane as a puppet President. He became rich through funds from the French government (for protecting French interests in the area) until 1981, then from apartheid-era South Africa for spying on ANC bases and monitoring the war in Mozambique. He also turned the Comoros into a gun-running centre to deliver arms to the Iraq Ba'athists. It all went wrong in 1989- Abderamane was about to sack and arrest Denard for corruption, but Denard launched his third coup and murdered the President. Two days later, on November 29, the real reasons for the assassination emerged when Denard and the GP seized control of the government in a coup. Twenty-seven police officers were killed, hundreds of people were arrested, and all journalists were confined to their hotels. The mercenaries disarmed the regular army, ousted provisional president Haribon Chebani,and installed another puppet. However, massive public demonstration arose following boycotts from the international community, and Denard was overthrown by the French and South African governments.
In 1995 the old bastard was back again, invading the islands with a mercenary force- this time without French backing. He overthrew the elected government, but was himself toppled by a French invasion involving 600 commando troops. This time he was gone for good- arrested and hauled off for trial in France for allegedly murdering Abderamane. From the BBC-
"According to Mr Denard, President Abdallah's bodyguard, Abdallah Jaffar, burst into the room and fired at him, but the bullets accidentally hit the president. Mr Jaffar was in turn shot dead by Mr Denard.
Mr Denard said he was a close friend of President Abdallah.
"I was a soldier. I was never a killer," he told the court in a final plea on Wednesday."
He was found not guilty due to lack of evidence.
So has Comoros been at peace so then? Nope. Coups and strife galore. Since 1974, it's seen 20 coups, three secessions, two Presidential assassinations and four invasions. If you're planning on going, pack a kevlar vest along with your factor-20.
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