MORONI, March 7, 2008 (AFP) - The government of the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros said Friday it will try the renegade leader of the island of Anjouan for war crimes and crimes against humanity unless he flees.

Government spokesman Abdourahim Said Bakar said Colonel Mohamed Bacar was committing atrocities against residents of Anjouan, abused and tortured by his security forces.

'If he does not manage to flee, Mohamed Bacar will be arrested and tried in Comoros for war crimes and crimes against humanity, that's what we want,' said Bakar, who is also minister of education.

After holding a presidential election on the island in June last year, coup leader Bacar has repeatedly defied both the federal government of the Union of Comoros islands and the African Union.

Several people who have fled Anjouan for Grande Comore, the biggest of the three islands, have given firsthand accounts of atrocities by Bacar's security forces to AFP, some of them in hospital.

'Given all the atrocities committed by him (Bacar) and his men against innocent civilians, there are several possible charges against Mohamed Bacar,' Bakar said.

On February 25, Tanzania's Foreign Minister Bernard Membe urged Bacar to quit the island or surrender, warning that otherwise he would be arrested by Comoran and African Union troops and tried for war crimes.

Tanzania chairs the pan-African organisation and plans to supply troops for an AU-led military offensive on Anjouan to oust Bacar, alongside federal troops and soldiers from Libya, Senegal and Sudan.

'About 1,200 people have fled Anjouan because of Bacar's reign of terror,' according to Abdallah Mohamed Abdulatuf, the deputy chief of the Comoran Human Rights Foundation, adding that small motorised boats crossed daily to pick up more.

'There are human rights violations: torture, rape, men are sexually abused as well as women, there are burnings. The situation is very alarming,' Abdulatuf told AFP.

'We need the African forces to help the army provide security for the people and ward off (possible) resprisals as many people may want to seek revenge,' he added.

Witnesses have told AFP of worsening abuses since the federal government in Moroni on January 31 announced plans to launch a military operation to restore constitutional order, and subsequently obtained AU support.

There are no precise figures on the number of refugees from Anjouan, home to some 260,000 people, but more than 2,500 are currently in Grande Comore and the third Comoros island of Moheli, according to the government.

The troubled Indian Ocean archipelago has endured 19 coups or attempted coups since gaining independence from France in 1975.