Courtesy: Thomson Reuters.

UPDATE 3-Military killing clouds Guinea Bissau vote
	
Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:27pm GMT

			        
* Killing follows peaceful presidential vote
    
* Tiny West African state a cocaine-trafficking hub
    
* Officials: killing will not hinder electoral process (Adds comment from observer missions, details) 



By Richard Valdmanis and Alberto Dabo
    


BISSAU, March 19 (Reuters) - Guinea Bissau's former head ofmilitary intelligence was shot dead near his home in the capitalBissau overnight just hours after a peaceful presidential vote,witnesses and security officials said on Monday.
    
The killing of Colonel Samba Diallo follows a rash ofpolitical assassinations in the tiny West African state, a knownhaven for cocaine smugglers, at a time when many had hoped theelection would usher in a period of greater stability.
    
A resident of Diallo's neighbourhood told Reuters that menarmed with military-issue rifles shot Diallo just beforemidnight on Sunday. Another witness said he saw Diallo's body ata hospital morgue after the shooting.
    
Guinea Bissau's armed forces have been notoriously unrulysince independence from Portugal in 1974. Rivalries between somesenior officers have intensified as they compete for controlover the growing drugs trade, say analysts.
    
Diallo was seen as an ally of ruling party presidentialcandidate and former prime minister Carlos Gomes Junior, and waswidely feared during his time as head of military intelligencefor his alleged role in coups and political assassinations,diplomatic sources said.
    
But officials said there was no link between the killing andthe vote. "The events of yesterday have nothing to do with theelection. Nothing, absolutely nothing, should put in doubt thesmooth development of the electoral process," military spokesmanDaha Bana told a press conference.
    
Election commission president Desejado Lima da Costa saidafter meeting military officials: "We have been assured totalcooperation by the armed forces in ensuring security for theelectoral process all the way to the finish."
    
He said the first preliminary results from Sunday's pollwill be issued by next weekend.
    
Family members gathered on Monday morning at Diallo's house,a small cinderblock building with a tin roof. Women moaned andheld their heads and young men gathered on the roadside.
    
"I don't know if this was related to the election or not,"said his wife Fatoumata.
    
Diallo was head of military intelligence under ex-Army Chiefof Staff Jose Zamora Induta until the two were deposed andtemporarily jailed in an April 2010 mutiny that Westerndiplomats said was likely over control of the lucrative drugstrade between Latin America and Europe.
    
Gomes Junior was also briefly arrested during the mutiny buthas since said he has developed a "good working relationshipwith the military", including the new military Chief of StaffAntonio Indjai.
        
Campaigning and voting was peaceful in the presidentialelection, which was held to replace president Malam Bacai Sanha,who died in a Paris hospital in January after a long illness.Election observers said the voting appeared free and fair.
    
Gomes Junior is favourite to win the poll, but faces a toughchallenge from Manuel Sherifo Nhamadjo, who dropped out of theruling party to run against him, and former president KumbaYala, who shares the Balanta ethnicity with a quarter of thepopulation and most of the army.
    
Gomes Junior's rivals accuse him of fomenting instabilityand tolerating increased drugs-running during his time aspremier - a period of many political assassinations includingthat of President Joao Bernardo Vieira in 2009.
    
Gomes Junior has denied the accusations, and his outspokenopposition to drugs has helped win him tacit support fromforeign partners including the United States and Angola.
    
Guinea Bissau, a country of 1.6 million people whose mainofficial export is cashew nuts, is rich in natural resources buthas failed to attract investment because of its near-constantturmoil since independence from Portugal.
    
Angola, which is trying to develop a bauxite mine and builda deepwater port in the south, is trying to help Guinea Bissaureform its unruly army.		 (Editing by Tim Pearce and Andrew Heavens)



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