Guinea-Bissau says coup thwarted, warns Gambia


LISBON, Portugal (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau's president said Tuesday a coup
attempt was thwarted in May and warned the West African nation of Gambia over
its alleged role in coup plots, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported.

President Kumba Yalla said in Guinea-Bissau that about two dozen coup
plotters trained in neighboring Gambia had been arrested in an attempt to
oust his government on May 22, Lusa said.

The coup attempt was aimed at "overthrowing the democratically elected
government in Guinea-Bissau," Yalla said, speaking in front of about 300
people from various national regions and ethnic groups.

He was joined by armed forces chief Verissimo Seabra and Interior Minister
Rui Sanha. Yalla also made his comments in front of David Stephen, the
special representative of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Guinea-Bissau,
Lusa said.

Yalla, who was elected president in January 2000, said he would "smash"
Gambia if President Yahya Jammeh failed to stop backing attempts to
overthrown the Guinea-Bissau government, Lusa said.

Yalla gave no details about Gambia's alleged involvement in coup attempts.
However, he noted that Gambia was the birthplace of Brig. Ansumane Mane, the
one-time head of a military junta shot dead during a November 2000 coup
attempt.

An alleged coup plotter, reserve army officer Fode Conte, said in a taped
confession that he feared that he and fellow members of the Mandingo ethnic
group would be purged from the army.

Conte said on the tape played before onlookers that the plotters planned to
kill Yalla and other senior military officers from the rival Balanta ethnic
group, Lusa said.

Yalla said he would grant amnesties to those arrested in the alleged May plot
as well those detained for a coup attempt in December 2001.

The rumors of a coup and fears of a government and military shake-up have led
many residents in the capital, Bissau, to make plans to abandon the city,
Lusa said.

Guinea-Bissau, an impoverished former Portuguese colony of 1.3 million
people, has been rocked by repeated unrest since an army mutiny in 1998.
Gambia, a former British colony with fewer than 1.5 million people, is
separated from Guinea-Bissau by the country of Senegal.
  06/11/02 13:57 ET

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