Said Mohamed Djohar

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Said Mohamed Djohar ( Arabic سعيد محمد جوهر; * August 22, 1918 ; † February 22, 2006 in Mitsamiouli ) was President of the Comoros . Djohar held office once from November 27, 1989 to March 25, 1996. He went down in history as the first democratically elected president of his country. His term of office was interrupted by a coup, which is why he was unable to fulfill his mandate from March 29, 1995 to January 26, 1996.

Political career

Under the presidency of Ahmed Abdallah , Djohar served as President of the Supreme Court. Abdallah's term of office ended by death at the end of November 1989, more precisely: he was - like a lieutenant in the bodyguard - killed in a firefight between insurgents and soldiers. Shortly before, Abdallah had cast a referendum on a constitutional amendment that would have allowed him a third six-year term as president. From the point of view of the opposition, however, the referendum, which went well, resulted in “large-scale fraud”. Later the bodyguard was named as the perpetrator under the leadership of Bob Denard . Nevertheless, the order should come from Djohar.

Said Djohar then acted as interim president, as the constitution provides for the president of the Supreme Court. In doing so, he refrained from both the round table's recommendation to form a government of national unity and the constitutional requirement that the proper presidential election be held in mid-January 1990. Djohar then competed in mid-February 1990 for the Union Comorienne pour le Progrès - Oudzima (UCP) against five competitors and won through - after complications. In the first round he achieved second place with 44,845 votes or 23.1%, behind Mohammed Taki Abdoulkarim , who went into the runoff election as the winner with 47,329 votes or 24.4% of the votes. In this, the originally second placed Djohar then prevailed with 103,000 votes (55.1%) against Mohamed Taki with 84,178 votes (44.9%).

In terms of foreign policy, he relied on privileged relations with France and South Africa and also intensified diplomatic relations with the Arab states. After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Djohar turned away from this longtime partner of the Comoros and turned to Iran, which earned him sympathy in both Iran and the United States. Diplomatic trips in his first full calendar year as President took him to France, Madagascar and Mozambique.

Domestically, Djohar suffered a massive weakening in his second year, as his ruling party was divided by the resignation of various ministers and the subsequent founding of new parties. Due to changing coalitions, various government reforms were necessary during the year. At the beginning of December 1991, 24 of 42 parliamentarians introduced a vote of no confidence, the implementation of which "was manipulatively prevented by the parliamentary speaker". In terms of foreign policy, the president was “under massive pressure from France, which is demanding constitutional reform and at the same time exerting financial pressure to induce the government to come to a structural adjustment agreement with the two Bretton Woods agreements”. To strengthen ties to the Islamic world, he sent a contingent of troops to Saudi Arabia in January 1991 on the occasion of the second Gulf War , and bilateral relations with Madagascar were further intensified. State visits led him a. a. to France and Belgium. The domestic political complications that Djohar had to deal with continued into his third year - he had to reshape the government twice in May and July. In addition, various political strikes were carried out at the beginning of the year because Djohar's government was no longer able to pay the salaries of state employees. In February 1992 school and university students went on hunger strike. He was also dismissed from office by the President of the Supreme Court in August 1991, but ignored the measure and instead arrested all members of the Supreme Court. Then he declared a state of emergency.

His one-time tenure was interrupted by a coup by mercenary Bob Denard . Due to an intervention by the former colonial power France, however, he was reinstalled in his office after a few weeks.

Private

Djohar was the half-brother of former Socialist President Ali Soilih .

He died at his home in Mitsamiouli in the north of the Comoros, about 40 km north of the town of Moroni . An official cause of death was initially not given, but according to some officials, he should have been ill for a long time.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d Reuters : Said Mohamed Djohar, 87, Comoros Leader, Is Dead. In: nytimes.de . February 25, 2006, accessed February 24, 2019 .
  2. a b Bernhard Thibaut: Elections in Africa - A Data Handbook . Ed .: Dieter Nohlen, Michael Krennerich, Bernhard Thibaut. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-829645-2 , pp. 244 ( sahistory.org.za (PDF)).
  3. President of the Comoros assassinated . In: The daily newspaper . No.  2973 , November 28, 1989, pp. 6 ( taz.de ).
  4. ^ Michael Newton: Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1: AP . ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara 2014, ISBN 978-1-61069-285-4 , pp. 1 ( full text / preview in Google book search).
  5. a b c David Lea (Ed.): A Political Chronology of Africa . Europa Publications, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-40995-7 , pp. 95 ( full text / preview in Google Book Search).
  6. ^ A b Ellen Baumann, Telse Diederichsen: Africa Yearbook 1990: Politics, Economy and Society in Africa south of the Sahara . Ed .: Institute for Africa Customer, Rolf Hofmeier. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1991, ISBN 978-3-8100-0890-9 , pp. 268–271 ( full text / preview in Google Book search).
  7. ^ Bernhard Thibaut: Elections in Africa - A Data Handbook . Ed .: Dieter Nohlen, Michael Krennerich, Bernhard Thibaut. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-829645-2 , pp. 255 ( sahistory.org.za (PDF)).
  8. Telse Diederichsen: Afrika Jahrbuch 1991: Politics, Economy and Society in Africa south of the Sahara . Ed .: Institute for Africa Customer, Rolf Hofmeier. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1992, ISBN 978-3-322-92532-9 , pp. 246–249 ( full text / preview in Google Book Search).
  9. Ulrich Leffler: Africa Yearbook 1992: Politics, Economy and Society in Africa south of the Sahara . Ed .: Institute for Africa Customer, Rolf Hofmeier. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1993, ISBN 978-3-322-92532-9 , pp. 247–250 (excerpt from springer.com ).