By Ed Harris

PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Sept 9 (Reuters) - When the dissident authorities of tiny Anjouan island wanted to prevent the national president of their Comoros archipelago visiting, they simply ordered a baggage trolley onto the runway.

The snubbed leader turned his plane and flew away.

The element of farce was typical of the Indian Ocean islands' coup-laden history, where notorious French mercenary Bob Denard's mini-army once "invaded" on inflatable boats.

But the June 5 airport incident also highlighted serious and damaging tensions between Anjouan and the federal government of preacher-turned-president Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi.

Democratically elected himself, Sambi demands Anjouan hold fair elections, but the island's self-appointed leader refuses.

Barely noticed by the outside world, the standoff is deterring aid and foreign investors to the fragile Islamic state of some 700,000 people. It even threatens further bloodshed.

"Everybody is frightened," said a 35-year old man from Anjouan. "I had thought that with the start of the third millennium, we might have turned a new page."

The hilly, wooded Anjouan -- one of three main Comoros islands -- supplies two-thirds of the world's ylang-ylang, an essential oil with renowned therapeutic properties.

But democracy is a rarer commodity.

A French-trained former gendarme, Anjouan's leader, Colonel Mohamed Bacar, came to power in a putsch in 2001, and has survived two more coup attempts since then.

SEAFARERS AND PIRATES

Anjouan's suspected involvement with money laundering and smuggling stain attempts by Sambi, an Islamist reformer educated in Iran and Saudi Arabia, to tackle graft.

A recent U.S. State Department report said Anjouan's offshore finance authority had licensed about 300 offshore banks, many of which appeared to be shell organisations.

First settled by Arab seafarers, and later a haven for pirates, the Comoros islands have seen a remarkable 19 successful or attempted coups since independence from France in 1975. They have barely stopped bickering since then.

"The whole country needs a break," the U.N. resident coordinator in Comoros, Opia Mensah Kumah, said in Moroni, capital of Grande Comore island and also the archipelago.

"No leader here has ever had a chance to think...They are managing crises all the time."

Tensions following Anjouan's 1997 declaration of independence led to a 2001 peace deal, then last year's national presidential election -- Comoros' first peaceful transition of power. But suspicions have lingered.

The latest situation came to a head in May when federal government soldiers tried to take control of Anjouan buildings to install a replacement president as mandated by a court.

Anjouan's militia fought back with rockets and automatic weapons, killing two government soldiers trying to flee by boat.

The national government has been threatening to return ever since, leaving Anjouan's quarter of a million or so residents in constant fear of more turmoil.

"It's a stalemate," said a senior diplomat tracking Comoros. "I don't think we have a clear plan today of where to go."

NEGOTIATIONS TRICKY

A popular cleric who once ran perfume and mattress businesses on his native Anjouan, President Sambi is widely trusted, but the crisis affects his credibility.

"Bacar's position is to stay in power, Sambi's position is fair elections for a new president," another diplomat said. "If Sambi were to concede on his bottom line, he'd be discredited."

Negotiations look tricky because Bacar has a reputation for breaking his promises.

But with a failed attempt to subdue Anjouan in 1997, then this year's botched effort, the military route is risky too.

Armed with automatic weapons, Anjouan's militia ooze confidence on parade or guarding Bacar's high-walled house.

"I cannot say that necessarily we will win (in case of an invasion), but we will defend ourselves," Mohamed Abdou Madi, a minister in Anjouan's local government, told Reuters.

The national government has turned to the outside world, winning African Union (AU) endorsement for its position.

"Our strategy is to go along with the international community," said government spokesman Abdourahim Said Bakar.

They would like the AU to put together a more robust mission than the several hundred troops recently used for election security. But the pan-African body is dragging its feet.

And after so many years of failed mediation, Comorians are tired and cynical. "If they can't solve Comoros, they are hardly going to solve Darfur," said Anjouan resident Aboulatuf Mohamed.

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