Guiné-Bissau, o Conflito

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LUSA http://www.lusa.pt/
Tropas guineenses festejam vitória, Ansumane Mané em fuga
24 Nov-00:03

       As tropas leais ao presidente da Guiné-Bissau, Kumba Ialá, festejam vitória, depois de tomada a base aérea de Bissalanca e da fuga do general Ansumane Mané.
       Ao longo da Avenida 14 de Novembro, que liga o centro de Bissau ao aeroporto de Bissalanca, militares desfilaram em camiões de caixa aberta saudando os populares, na sua maioria jovens, e disparando salvas de metralhadora para o ar.
       Um dos militares mais efusivamente saudado pelos civis foi o general Melcíades Gomes Fernandes - nomeado chefe de Estado-Maior General pelo presidente Kumba Ialá - que esteve detido em Bissalanca pelas forças de Ansumane Mané.
       Desconhece-se, por enquanto, o paradeiro do general revoltoso que fugiu com mais cerca de cem oficiais, segundo os militares pró- presidente.
       Uma informação não confirmada, citada pelo coronel Zamora Induta, dá conta de que Ansumane Mané teria sido despido por populares próximo do aeroporto.
       Tanto a Comunidade de Países de Língua Portuguesa (CPLP) como a Organização de Unidade Africana (OUA) exprimiram, quinta-feira, a sua preocupação pela situação na Guiné-Bissau, apelando ao diálogo e à manutenção da ordem institucional.

Lusa/fim
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LUSA http://www.lusa.pt/
Guinea-Bissau: Loyalist Forces Ready Assault on Mutinous General´s HQ
23 Nov-14:46

       Troops loyal to Guinea-Bissau´s government appeared to be readying an assault Thursday against the headquarters of mutinous General Ansumane Mane on the outskirts of the capital, after taking control of central Bissau following sporadic overnight clashes.
       In a radio broadcast shortly after 1 PM (1300 GMT), loyalist spokesman Capt. Lt. Zamora Induta ordered residents to abandon neighborhoods separating downtown Bissau from Gen. Mane´s headquarters at an air base adjoining the city´s Bissalanca airport.
       The order to evacaute the densely populated Hafia quarter was accompanied by repeated orders, also broadcast over national radio, for "all operational units to advance rapidly toward the designated target", apparently a reference to Bissalanca.
       Capt.Lt. Induta, who said Gen. Mane had refused all attempts at mediation, sought to calm people in central Bissau, under control of loyalists forces since early morning, saying "the city is not in danger".
       By mid-morning the downtown area appeared quiet and largely deserted. But groups of people, carrying scarce belongings, were seen abandoning the city on foot.
       There were no immediate reports of casualties from the fighting with automatic weapons and bazookas which broke out in Bissau and Mansoa, 60 kms to the north, Wednesday evening and resumed in the capital at dawn Thursday.
       Loyalist officers broadcast appeals for Bissau residents to remain calm and "at home until order is restored".
       They said their forces controlled all military units in central Bissau and throughout most of the country.
       The Portuguese embassy told Lusa that some 300 Portuguese in Bissau were "well, in their homes and hotels".
       The clashes coincided with a radio announcement late Wednesday by officers loyal to Gen. Mane that he was assuming "supreme command of the armed forces", a role reserved under the constitution for President Kumba Iala.
       The mutinous officers said the move was "simply of a military nature, not placing state power in question".
       However, Capt.Lt. Induta said that Gen. Mane had ordered his forces to disarm the president´s personal guard Wednesday morning and that "we (loyalist officers) would have been next".
       On Monday, angered by a series of government military promotions, Gen. Mane, who led an 11-month revolt that toppled President Nino Vieira in May 1999, unilaterally announced he was taking the post of armed forces chief of staff.
       In Bissau, the fighting appeared to have started outside the home of loyalist armed forces chief Maj.Gen. Verissimo Correia Seabra who was placed under house arrest Monday by rebel soldiers.
       Maj. Gen. Seabra and his family reportedly escaped during the initial clash to an undisclosed location.
       Before the outbreak of fighting, government spokesman Pedro da Costa said a government delegation hoped to meet "in a very short time" with Gen. Mane.
       SAS
       -Lusa-
Copyright @ Agência Lusa
A redistribuição ou a difusão, parcial ou integral, das notícias deste "site" é proibida, sem prévio e expresso consentimento da Agência LUSA, S.A.
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LUSA http://www.lusa.pt/
Guinea-Bissau: Catholic Bishop Appeals for Military Factions to Talk
23 Nov-13:13

       The leader of Guinea-Bissau´s Catholic church, Bishop Jose Camnate Na Bissign, issued a "vehement appeal" Thursday for the country´s hostile military factions to cease fighting and pull back from "this point of madness".
       "It is not too late to go back" to dialogue and peace, the bishop said in a statement he read over national radio.
       Recalling "all the deaths of innocents" and the "prostrate in the mud" predicament the country found itself in after the 11-month armed forces´ rebellion of 1998-99, Bishop Na Bissign said that that confrontation "at least had the common attraction of fighting for a more democratic society".
       "But now we are fighting again against whom? For what objectives? Who can benefit from the destruction already provoked and from the precipitate flight of so many innocent people"?, he asked rhetorically.
       SAS
       -Lusa-
Copyright @ Agência Lusa
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CNN http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/
Army patrols Guinea-Bissau capital after clashes with rebel troops

November 23, 2000
Web posted at: 11:56 AM EST (1656 GMT)

By BARRY HATTON

LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- Gunfire and sporadic explosions rattled the capital of Guinea-Bissau on Thursday as government troops turned on soldiers backing a former coup leader who has challenged the government's authority, reports said.
                  No casualties were reported, but the Portuguese news agency Lusa said dozens of civilians were fleeing Bissau, the former Portuguese colony's coastal capital.
                  Daniel Perdigao, the press attache at the Portuguese embassy, said the shooting began before dawn and lasted two hours. The explosions were apparently from rockets fired from hand-held launchers.
                  After the gunfire died down, government troops patrolled key areas of Bissau, Perdigao said by telephone.
                  The Portuguese embassy had received reports that army units also were gathering near an air base on the outskirts of the city where Brig. Ansumane Mane, who led a military rebellion in 1998, and his supporters are holed up.
                  "People are not panicking but they are staying in their houses and there's little movement on the streets," Perdigao said.
                  He said the embassy was trying to contact Mane and the government to dissuade them from further fighting.
                  Intelligence reports indicated most of the 23,000-strong armed forces had sided with the government but Mane's troops were in control of a large weapons depot at the fortified air base, Perdigao said.
                  In a communique read on the country's state radio, the armed forces urged civilians to stay in their homes until order is restored, Lusa reported.
                  Army spokesman Capt. Zamora Induta told state radio the army controlled all rural areas of the small West African country except the central zone, according to Lusa.
                  Induta said the army had arrested the commander of the region, Augusto Mario Co, who was in Bissau, though he provided no details.
                  The armed forces communique accused Mane of "insubordination and breaches of the constitution."
                  Mane prompted the crisis on Monday when he announced he was ousting the armed forces chief and taking charge of the armed forces.
                  His move, which came after a dispute with President Kumba Yala over military promotions, drew a protest from the U.N. Security Council Tuesday in New York.
                  The shooting first erupted Wednesday evening but stopped at midnight, Lusa said. Gunfire also was reported in the town of Mansoa, about 35 miles from the capital, on Wednesday evening, the report said.
                  The clashes reportedly were between Mane's followers and soldiers loyal to Gen. Verissimo Correia Seabra, the chief of the armed forces ousted by Mane.
                  Guinea-Bissau, a poorly developed nation of about 1.1 million people, is struggling to recover from the rebellion two years ago that killed more than 2,000 people and ended with the ouster of President Joao Bernardo Vieira.
                  That uprising, led by Mane, had broad popular support and led to internationally monitored elections last year.
                  Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.
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Guiné-Bissau: Novo apelo à calma e ao recolher dos civis
23 Nov-13:50

       O porta-voz das forças fiéis ao regime da Guiné-Bissau lançou hoje um veemente apelo para a calma e manutenção dos civis em suas casas para evitarem ser atingidos por uma bala perdida, garantindo que os militares vão ultrapassar a situação.
       Procurando evitar pilhagens, Zamora Induta alertou ainda a população para que não invada qualquer loja, sob risco de sofrer represálias.
       Cerca de um quarto de hora antes e também através da Rádio Nacional, Zamora Induta ordenara a todas as unidades militares em operação para se dirigirem ao alegado alvo designado, rapidamente, o que poderá corresponder a uma eventual ordem de combate.
       Sabe-se, entretanto, que em Mansoa, a 60 quilómetros da capital, e local onde se ouviram os primeiros tiros deste novo conflito na Guiné-Bissau, a situação está calma.

Lusa/Fim
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allAfrica http://allafrica.com/guineabissau/
OAU Unhappy Over Political Tension in Bissau

Panafrican News Agency
November 23, 2000
Dakar, Senegal

OAU Secretary General Salim Ahmed Salim is urging Gen. Ansumane Mane, leader of the erstwhile junta, who has proclaimed himself army chief of staff of Guinea-Bissau "to show due respect for the constitution" of the country.
        In an OAU press release issued Thursday, Salim also urges Mane to "work toward a negotiated solution by entering into dialogue with the government of President Kumba Yalla, which has already expressed its readiness to open dialogue with him."
        Salim said the current political tension in that country dismayed the OAU, and warned with concern "that this new development, which evokes memories of the violence and chaos of 1998 and 1999, could lead to a crisis that may
undermine the process of consolidating peace and democracy in Guinea Bissau."
        He added "that the advent of further upheavals in Guinea-Bissau can only exacerbate insecurity and instability in that part of West Africa which is already mired in a number of conflicts."
          Copyright © 2000 Panafrican News Agency.
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DN http://www.dn.pt/home/fint.htm
PAIGC responsabiliza Kumba Ialá pela crise em Bissau
23nov00

         O braço-de-ferro continuava ontem na Guiné-Bissau entre o autoproclamado chefe das Forças Armadas, Ansumane Mané, e o Presidente da República, Kumba Ialá.
         Em comunicado, o bureau político do PAIGC responsabilizou Kumba Ialá pela situação de tensão existente no país, afirmando que a autoproclamação de Mané resulta de "mais um acidente provocado no seio da sociedade castrense pelo actual poder político".
         Para o PAIGC, a forma como este assunto foi oficialmente gerido demonstra a "expressão do estado de desgovernação e de uma magistratura presidencial atabalhoada".
         Por seu turno, um pequeno partido, a União Nacional para a Democracia e Progresso (UNDP, oposição), manifestou a sua "solidariedade" com a "intervenção atempada" do general Mané.
Entretanto, uma delegação do Governo guineense decidiu deslocar-se à base aérea de Bissalanca, às portas de Bissau, para dialogar com o general Ansumane Mané, disse o porta-voz do Executivo, Pedro da Costa.
         O porta-voz do Executivo e secretário de Estado da Comunicação Social, Pedro da Costa, regojizou-se com a posição do Conselho de Segurança das Nações Unidas, divulgada na terça à noite.
         O Conselho de Segurança condenou a atitude do general Mané ao autoproclamar-se, na segunda-feira, chefe do Estado-Maior-General das Forças Armadas, à revelia do Presidente guineense, e responsabilizou-o pelas eventuais consequências da sua posição, caso o país volte a
mergulhar na agitação político-militar.
         Pedro da Costa disse ainda que "a adopção desta posição demonstra o repúdio da comunidade internacional relativamente à insubordinação face ao poder constitucionalmente eleito e patenteia a preocupação da ONU sobre a manutenção do clima de paz e estabilidade na Guiné-Bissau".
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DN http://www.dn.pt/home/fint.htm
Tiros na capital da Guiné-Bissau assustam população
      23 de Novembro de 2000

         Tiros foram ouvidos em Bissau, o que levou muitos dos seus habitantes a deixarem a cidade por recearem o reinício de combates. Segundo a AFP, que cita fontes diplomáticas, na origem do tiroteio esteve uma tentativa do general Ansumane Mané de desarmar a guarda presidencial, enquanto a Lusa revelava que os disparos foram entre militares fiéis a Ansumane Mané e os fiéis a Verisssimo Correia Seabra, antigo chefe de Estado-Maior.
         Correia Seabra, sob residência vigiada desde segunda-feira - quando foi destituído por Ansumane Mané -, terá iludido a segurança e fugido com a família para parte incerta. Ansumane Mané, após ter-se autoproclamado chefe de Estado Maior, violando a Constituição e ultrapassando as
prerrogativas do Chefe de Estado, nomeou, ontem, o coronel Buapa Na Mbatcha como novo chefe de Estado-Maior.
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      JN http://www.jn.pt/
Tiros no centro de Bissau
23nov00

Tiroteio, aparentemente sem consequências, entre soldados guineenses de facções diferentes abalou a calma que se vive na capital da Guiné apesar da crise político-militar em curso. Embora em número escasso, já se vê civis, com trouxas e sacos, a abandonar, apressadamente, a cidade. Há também quem continue a fazer uma vida normal que incluiu frequentar cafés.
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allAfrica http://allafrica.com/guineabissau/
GUINEA-BISSAU: Focus On New Source of Instability
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
ANALYSIS

November 23, 2000
Abidjan

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

        A new threat to stability in Guinea-Bissau emerged this week when former military strongman General Ansumane Mane declared himself head of the armed forces and revoked promotions awarded by President Kumba Yala.
        Mane's moves were condemned by Guinea-Bissau's government, which asked Mane on Tuesday to respect the constitution and its institutions. The UN Security Council said on Tuesday that it would hold Mane responsible if his action led to further unrest and chaos. It urged him to start dialogue with the government on the basis of the country's constitutional order.
        However, a humanitarian source told IRIN on Wednesday that Mane had refused to meet anyone since he ordered the promoted military officers to hand back their commissions.
        Yala had promoted 32 officers last week: 14 became generals, 10 were made colonels and eight became lieutenant-colonels. Mane was made a four-star general, the highest rank in the country, but stayed away from the
ceremony. He said at a news conference on Monday that there were too many generals in the country of 1.1 million people and that there should be equality and justice in any readjustments in the military.
        In addition to revoking the promotions, Mane placed chief of staff Verissimo Correia Seabra and his deputy, Emilio Costa, under house arrest, before declaring himself supreme chief of the armed forces and replacing Seabra with General Buota Nan Batcha.
        News organisations reported clashes on Thursday morning between Mane supporters and soldiers loyal to Seabra, who escaped from house arrest on the previous evening. The Portuguese ambassador in Bissau, Antonio Dias, said later on Portuguese radio that the shooting had stopped. He said people on the outskirts of the town had fled at the first shots, as occurred during a 1998-1999 civil war, in which about 300,000 people were displaced. "Everyone is trying to leave," Dias told RDP radio.
        Last week's promotions had been due in September, but were postponed thrice because of disagreement between Yala and Mane, the Pan African News Agency (PANA) reported. PANA quoted Mane as saying on Monday that the list Yala signed was not the one they had agreed to, which forced him to consider the promotions null and void.
        This week's developments, the humanitarian source said, are significant. "It means that he (Mane) does not recognise the authority of the head of state," he said. Moreover, when Mane issued a communique reassuring the public that all was calm, he signed as commander of the military junta. That junta was supposed to have been dissolved following the presidential poll in November 1999 and January 2000, which Yala won.
        "There has been a longstanding malaise between the military and the government," the source said. "The junta never accepted to stay in the barracks. This is an excuse to make a comeback." Over the past few months, nearly all decisions made by the president have been challenged by the military and usually the head of state has backed off, according to
the source.
        One of the best known cases involved the head of the navy, Lamine Sanha. In April, the government relieved him of his command after he unilaterally released a foreign boat found fishing illegally in Guinea-Bissau waters. He refused to vacate his post, appealed against his dismissal in a court of law and won.
        Earlier, Yala had appointed Seabra minister of defence. The military did not agree and the appointment was withdrawn. Mane was offered the post of adviser to the head of state but turned it down.
        Humanitarian sources said the arrest early this month by regional authorities in the north of some 300 men who were heading towards the border with Senegal, reportedly to join the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC), also helped to deepen the rift.
        A humanitarian source based in Abidjan told IRIN the MFDC, which has been fighting for two decades for a separate state in southern Senegal's Casamance region, had helped Mane's forces fight President Joao Bernardo Vieira in 1998 and 1999. Vieira's forces were supported by Senegalese and Guinean troops.
        After Mane overthrew Vieira in May 1999, his military junta co-governed Guinea-Bissau with handpicked civilians. Just days before the first round of internationally observed presidential polls on 28 November, the junta issued a document detailing the role it aimed to play after the elections, which it wanted all political parties to sign.
        The Magna Carta, as the document was called, stated: "When commands emanating from (state organs) run counter to the constitution and the law, passive disobedience shall be legitimate resistance; when active it (the disobedience) shall be legitimate revolt."
        The document also outlined the competencies of the president and other state institutions.
        During the first two terms following the 1999 election, it said, the president would appoint or dismiss the armed forces chief of staff on the recommendation of the military junta. The junta - along with the government - would also have a say in the appointment of the attorney-general, according to the document.
        Should there be a crisis that impedes the functioning of state institutions, the president would dissolve the government after consulting the junta and the Council of State, it added.
        The publication of the Magna Carta in late November 1999 provoked an outcry, with political leaders rejecting the document outright. The junta withdrew it, but its actions over the past months appear to be in line with the Magna Carta, the Abidjan-based source said.
        The new development compounds the difficulties Yala faces. In September, a power-sharing row broke out between his Partido da Renovacao Social (PRS) and its coalition partner, Resistencia da Guine (RGB) and Yala sacked the five RGB members in his cabinet. This threatened to cause a constitutional crisis since the PRS does not have an absolute majority in parliament. However, the dispute was resolved and the RGB ministers were reinstated.
        Public servants have been protesting against the non-payment of overdue wages and allowances and last week opposition parties demonstrated, calling for the resignation of the government. At least one party, Uniao para a mudanza, has come out in favour of Mane's position, the humanitarian source said.

Actualizada em: domingo, 26 de Novembro de 2000