Staff Writer
| Standard-Times
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Military leaders in Guinea-Bissau pledged to restore order and democracy in the tiny West African nation Monday following the assassination of President Joao Bernardo Vieira by soldiers, just hours after the army chief was killed in a bomb attack.
Vieira and the head of the joint chiefs of staff, Batiste Tagme na Waie, were fierce rivals, prompting speculation that the president’s killing was carried out in revenge for Waie’s death.
Military spokesman Zamora Induta said that Vieira’s killing was not a military coup and that the army was searching for an isolated group of soldiers believed responsible. He said Vieira was killed as he tried to flee his house.
Waie was slain at military headquarters late Sunday.
African Union leaders and the Economic Community of West African States, a regional group, condemned the assassination. An AU statement described the attack on Vieira as “cowardly and heinous” and ECOWAS spokesman Mohamed ibn Chambas called it the “assassination of democracy.”
As calm returned Monday to Bissau, the capital, military leaders met with the government of Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr.
“We reaffirmed our intention to respect the democratically elected power and the constitution of the republic,” Induta, the military spokesman, said in a radio broadcast after the meeting. “The people who killed President Vieira have not been arrested but we are pursuing them. The situation is under control.”
In the 35 years since Guinea-Bissau gained independence from Portugal, the West African nation has been destabilized by political rivalries, a civil war and repeated coups.
Latin American drug traffickers using the country to route cocaine to Europe have added to the crisis, with politicians and the military accusing one another of involvement in smuggling.
The country’s open coastline, endemic corruption and lack of law and order make it an ideal transit point for narcotics gangs. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime warned last year that Guinea-Bissau was on the verge of becoming a narco-state.
One of the poorest countries in Africa, Guinea-Bissau relies on foreign aid and cashew exports for income. Most of its 1.5 million residents survive on less than a dollar a day. Its democratic institutions are weak or nonexistent.
Vieira dominated Guinea-Bissau for 23 of the last 29 years. He was head of the armed forces when he seized power in 1980 in a coup, ushering in years of authoritarian rule during which opposition parties were suppressed. He won the country’s first democratic elections in 1994 but his dismissal of the army chief in 1998 triggered an army mutiny, and plunged the country into civil war. He was deposed in 1999 after 19 years in power.
In 2003, President Kumba Yala was deposed in a coup. Vieira returned from exile in Portugal to win presidential elections in 2005.
Under the constitution, the speaker of Parliament, Raimundo Perreira would take power and elections would be held within 60 days.
Tensions between Vieira’s government and the military have been building in recent months. In November, soldiers armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the presidential palace but were rebuffed by security forces.
Vieira was given a 400-strong security force to guard him, but it was disbanded in January after accusations that it had attacked Waie’s car in an assassination bid.
Source link : https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/nation-world/2009/03/03/guinea-bissau-president-assassinated/52077200007/
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Publish date : 2009-03-03 08:00:00
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