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Guinea-Bissau/EU: Portugal wants European Union guarantees

Brussels, Oct. 1 (Lusa) - Portugal wants the European Union to ensure that relief action for Guinea-Bissau will be ready after normalisation of the country's politico-military situation. The information was given to LUSA by the Portuguese foreign ministry's state secretary, Luis Amado, in Brussels on Wednesday. Amado made the remark before a meeting between the European Union and its partner countries in Africa, the Carribean and the Pacific. Portugal is interested in ensuring the European's Union assistance in "rebuilding" Guinea-Bissau in the wake of a military rebellion that broke out in June. - Lusa

Lisbon, Sept. 30 (Lusa) - The rebel Military Junta has warned it will reject ECOWAS as a mediator in the Guinea-Bissau conflict if their stranded negotiating team is not authorized by Thursday to return home from Gambia.

Rebel spokesman Commander Jose Zamora Induta told Lusa Wednesday that the ultimatum had been relayed to the second mediating party, the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP), Tuesday. Contacted by telephone in Banjul, Induta said the junta's toughened stance was relayed to Cape Verde Foreign Minister Jose Luis de Jesus, head of the CPLP's contact group in the negotiations.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is the other mediator. Two of its member states, Senegal and Guinea-Conakry, have deployed troops to back Bissau against the rebels.

The junta's negotiating team has been stranded in Gambia for 11 days, since flying there from the last round of peace negotiations staged in Ivory Coast Sept. 14.

The team, which includes senior rebel strategists and commanders, has been awaiting overflight authorization from Bissau to return to areas under junta control. - Lusa

Bissau, Sept. 30 (Lusa) - A so- called "good-will commission" comprising parliamentarians and community leaders visited the headquarters of Guinea-Bissau's rebellious "military council" in Bissau on Tuesday for talks on the country's peace process.

The president of the commission, Roman-Catholic Bishop Dom Septimio Ferrazetta, expressed satisfaction with the meeting, saying he was hopeful that a delegation of the ''military council'' stranded in Banjul, capital of The Gambia, would soon be able to return to Guinea-Bissau.

The delegation took part in peace talks in Abidjan earlier this month.

Guinea-Bissau's ruling party, PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) hads meanwhile set up a "contact group" in an effort to find a solution to the country's conflict through direct talks with rebellious "military council". Lusa

Lisbon, Sept. 29 (Lusa) - The negotiating team of Guinea-Bissau's rebel Military Junta, stranded in the Gambian capital, Banjul, for two weeks, still awaited Tuesday authorization from Bissau to fly home.

Contacted by telephone from Lisbon Monday, one of the stranded officers, navy Capt. Lamine Sanha, told Lusa the group had declined a French plan for their evacuation, apparently for security reasons.

"We are still waiting for authorization from Bissau to overfly the territory," he said.

Portugal has offered its help but only on condition the request be made by one of the organizations mediating the Guinea-Bissau conflict, the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) or the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The rebel team has been stuck in Banjul, since flying there after a round of negotiations in the Ivory Coast Sept. 14. - Lusa

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