Coup Applauded By Politicians And Ordinary People

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
NEWS
September 15, 2003
Posted to the web September 15, 2003
Bissau

Guinea-Bissau's new military leaders met on Monday with politicians, civil
society representatives and religious leaders, many of whom congratulated
coup leader General Verissimo Correia Seabra for removing the chaotic
civilian government of ex-president Kumba Yala.

Carlos Gomes, leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-
Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which ruled the small West African country
until 1999, said the army had saved democracy.

Francisco Fadul, the head of the interim government which ruled Guinea-
Bissau in the period leading up to elections in 2000 which brought Kumba
Yala to power, also welcomed his overthrow. He said the army had saved the
country from dictatorship.

Fernando Gomes, of the Guinea-Bissau Resistance - Bafata Movement, an
estranged former ally of Kumba Yala, said he regretted that the coup had
upset constitutional order and it was important that elections be held
soon.

In the streets of the capital Bissau, ordinary people greeted Sunday's
bloodless coup with a sense of relief following three years of incessant
government reshuffles and repeated strikes by civil servants demanding
their unpaid wages.

The new authorities scrapped a dawn to dusk curfew imposed 24 hours earlier
and lifted restrictions which had been placed temporarily on the free
movement of vehicles and people. Shops and markets reopened and the
authorities reopened the airport and the land frontiers with Senegal and
Guinea-Conakry.

The six-hour meeting between army commanders and political and civil
society leaders focused on the formation of a transitional government to
lead this former Portuguese colony into fresh elections next year, but no
ministerial appointments were announced.

The new administration is due to be backed by a broad-based consultative
body to be called the national transitional council.

The meeting ended with a joint resolution strongly backing Sunday's coup.
The resolution said the army's removal of Kumba Yala had rescued Guinea-
Bissau from the prospect of civil war. It welcomed the coup leaders'
commitment to holding elections and called on the international community
to give formal recognition to the 32-member Committee for the Restoration
of Constitutional and Democratic Order (CMROCD) which has effectively
siezed power.

Correia Seabra stressed that he was strictly an interim leader and pledged
to hand over power to "a credible civilian figure." He has so far declined
to say when elections would be held, but participants at the meeting said
it would not be before the end of this year.

The army intervened 48 hours after the National Electoral Commission said
voters' lists would not be ready in time to conduct free and fair
parliamentary elections on 12 October that had been postponed four times
already.

While there were no public demonstrations in support of the coup, the
military intervention was broadly welcomed in this desperately poor country
of 1.3 million people.

Ordinary citizens, chatting on buses or in taxis, said the coup should have
happened long ago. They were adamant that Kumba Yala and deposed Prime
Minister Mario Pires were overwhelmingly to blame for the country's
difficult economic situation. Most civil servants had not been paid for up
to nine months.

The main trade union organisation, the National Union of Guinean Workers
(UNTG), called off a general strike it had been trying to organise in
protest at Kumba Yala's erratic rule and urged people to go into work as
usual.

Kumba Yala and Pires were both allowed to return home on Monday morning,
but were placed under house arrest.

Although the coup was generally greeted as a welcome fait accompli at home,
it continued to draw criticism abroad.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the putsch and called "on the
parties concerned not to resort to any acts of violence or retribution".

South Africa expressed its "unequivocal condemnation" of the military
takeover, joining Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Sao Tome and the African
Union in condemning Correia Seabra for seizing power

But there was no sign of a concerted campaign to have Kumba Yala
reinstated, like that which forced coup leaders in the island state of Sao
Tome and Principe to back down in July and allow elected president Fradique
de Menezes to return to power a week after he was overthrown.

Even organisations which would normally be strongly opposed to military
intervention voiced little sympathy for the departed civilian leader.

The human rights organisation RADDHO in neighbouring Senegal described
Kumba Yala as "an ethnocratic head of state who did absolutely nothing to
prevent what happened to him".

Yala had been widely accused of favouring members of his own Balante ethnic
group and of discriminating against Muslims who comprise nearly half the
population.

Foreign governments have already initiated diplomatic contacts with the
military leaders in Guinea-Bissau.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has deployed
650 soldiers from Guinea-Bissau as part of its peacekeeping force in
Liberia, was due to send a delegation of ministers to Bissau late on
Monday. .

Meeting in Lisbon on Monday, ambassadors from members of the Community of
Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) came out against the coup and appealed
for the reestablishment of order. But they also urged the meeting of
soldiers and civilians in Bissau "to obtain solutions to the country's
problems through dialogue."


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2003 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights
reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~