Two Senegalese journalists have been arrested in Dakar after they published an article on the troubled Casamance region ahead of talks this weekend between the government and separatists in the troubled province.
The journalists, both from the independent Le Populaire daily, were arrested Thursday, police here said.
The charges against them have not been made known, but an editor at the paper said they were questioned by police Tuesday "after the paper published an article on Casamance."
The Dakar government has been fighting separatists in Casamance for the last 18 years. Face-to-face peace talks -- the first under the government of President Abdoulaye Wade -- are due to begin Saturday, in Ziguinchor, the capital of the province.
Announcing talks were to be held, the Wade government warned against "attacks on national unity by propaganda ... in favor of the separatists."
The warning was taken by many here as a threat against press freedom.
Wade himself last week said press freedom "had its limits."
The Paris-based press rights association Reporters sans Frontieres (Reporters without Borders) has sent a letter of protest to the interior ministry in Dakar -- DAKAR (AFP)
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