MORONI, March 28, 2008 (AFP) - Comoran President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi said demonstrations against France demanding ousted Anjouan leader Mohamed Bacar be extradited were justified but urged protestors to refrain from violent action.

'You are right to express your dissatisfaction but do not resort to violence,' Sambi said late Thursday during a religious ceremony at his presidential palace in the federal capital Moroni.

Several thousand Comorans demonstrated Thursday to demand France hand over Bacar to face trial in the Comoros, notably over charges of torture.

'France should return Bacar to us, France get out of Comoros,' read some placards.

'On one hand, France had said that it would help us restore democracy, on the other hand it is opening doors to dictators,' said Kamaliddine Afraitane, a don.

The 45-year-old renegade leader of Anjouan -- one of the Comoros Union's three islands -- was ousted by a joint military operation involving Comoran government forces and African Union-mandated troops from Sudan and Tanzania.

Bacar managed to flee Anjouan and found refuge in Mayotte, which is the fourth island in the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago and opted to remain French when the rest of the Comoros acquired independence in 1975.

Many residents of the Comoros suspect the former colonial power of covertly protecting Bacar, despite the fact that France provided logistical support to the operation launched Tuesday.

A demonstration was staged in Moroni on Thursday in front of the French ambassador's residence while a Frenchman, who works as head of the French school there, was attacked by a mob on his way to work.

Bacar has asked France for asylum and was to appear in court in Reunion on Saturday, along with 23 other men.

'If France doesn't want to extradite him to a country where the death penalty is still in force, then it should hand him over to another court such as the one in The Hague,' Sambi said.

The Dutch city hosts the International Criminal Court, which prosecutes individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.