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Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 06:16:57 EDT

Subject: Confirmation of fighting

I spoke with two different people in Bissau last night at 7:00 p.m. EDT Both confirmed that fighting had taken place. One reported that fighting had begun around 6:00 p.m. Bissau time, and was still ongoing as we spoke. The fighting included much machine gun and mortar fire in the general area of the presidential palace, suggesting that ground troops were moving into downtown.

It was rumored that ECOMOG troops had moved Nino from the palace to a safer location. My contacts, in the area of Mavegro, could hear machine gun fire as we spoke.

Let us pray for a resolution of this conflict and return to peace.

Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 06:28:41 EDT

Subject: Reuters report on fighting

Heavy firing rocks Bissau as clashes resume

LISBON, May 7 (Reuters) - The capital of the West African state of Guinea-Bissau was shaken by shell and machinegun fire on Friday as fighting intensified between rebels and loyalists, Portugal's Lusa news agency reported.

Lusa, in a report from Bissau, said that the city had "become an inferno" with rebels apparently seeking to press forward from bases on the outskirts towards the presidential palace in the city centre.

Clashes had erupted on Thursday night, after an uneasy six-month truce, with both sides exchanging automatic weapon and small arms fire in a dispute over disarmament, residents told Reuters in Dakar, Senegal, by telephone.

They said that troops loyal to President Joao ``Nino'' Vieira had set up barricades around the presidential palace.

Lusa said there was no electricity in the capital of the former Portuguese colony and the streets were deserted. Several hundred people had earlier taken refuge in the port area, it said.

"There are heavy explosions but I cannot tell whether they are grenades or shells," a Roman Catholic priest told Portugal's TSF radio.

Rebels led by former army commander Ansumane Mane signed a peace accord with Vieira in November meant to end a civil war that had flared since June 1998.

But despite the presence of peacekeepers from other West African states, both sides have been reluctant to surrender weapons.

Local residents said Mane had accused Vieira of not disbanding a 600-strong presidential guard as required under the terms of the peace deal signed in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Civil war first erupted after Vieira sacked Mane, his former comrade-in-arms in the long struggle against Portuguese rule, over charges he was involved in smuggling arms to secessionist rebels in the south of neighbouring Senegal.

Senegal and Guinea both intervened on the side of Vieira, but with the signing of the peace accord, their forces were replaced by several hundred troops from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

To: "Guinea-bissau List"

Subject: Heavy fighting in Bissau

Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 10:49:06 -0000

The junta soldiers is advancing rapidly towards the city centre. The have canons/mortars at the Mae de agua - Bandim/airport road crossing, soldiers with kalashnikovs and bazookas has advanced further on, after the road of the Portuguese embassy. For the moment intense firing, no people in the streets, bullets everywhere. Local phone lines are still working in some parts of town, the international lines are cut.

To: "Guinea-bissau List"
Subject: Forças da Junta entraram no quartel da Marinha
Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 11:46:13 -0000

07 MAI 99 - 12:12

Guiné-Bissau: Forças da Junta entraram no quartel da Marinha

Bissau, 07 Mai (Lusa) - As forças da Junta Militar entraram no Quartel da Marinha, em Bissau, e assumiram o controlo das instalações ás 10:45 horas locais (11:45 em Lisboa), apurou a Agência Lusa.

O Quartel da Marinha, a sul da capital da Guiné-Bissau, junto ao porto de Pidjiquiti e da central eléctrica que fornece energia a Bissau, foi o quartel-general das forças senegalesas que apoiaram as tropas do presidente "Nino" Vieira durante o conflito iniciado a 7 de Junho.

Subject: Troops of Nino surrender 2

Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 11:50:06 -0000

07 MAI 99 - 12:42

Guiné-Bissau: tropas de Nino Vieira rendem-se (2-conclui)

Numa curta declaracao, assinada pelo chefe do estado-maior general das forças armadas, brigadeiro Humberto Gomes, declara-se a rendição das forças leais a "Nino" Vieira, atendendo à "situacao degradante e aos interesses superiores do país".

Na declaração de rendição, o chefe do estado maior general das forças armadas guineenses considera ainda que "basta de sacrificios de vidas humanas".

O texto da declaracao de rendição foi entregue ao chefe da cooperacao militar portuguesa, coronel Evaristo, que a irá fazer chegar ao comando das forças da Junta Militar.

As 11:00 horas locais (12:00 em Lisboa) as forças da Junta Militar cercavam o palacio presidencial, desconhecendo-se se irao desencadear qualquer ofensiva, depois de conhecida a declaracao de rendicao.

O tiroteio continuava em Bissau, embora esporádico, ouvindo-se ainda alguns disparos de morteiro e bazuca e de arma automática.

Subject: Guinea-Bissau

Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 12:32:41 -0000

Nino is said to taken refugee at the French Cultural Centre, his soldiers has officially surrendered to the Junta. The palace is burning, armoured cars of the Junta are in the city centre. There are still shooting in the city, the Red Cross has started to collect dead bodies at Chapa.