Self-proclaimed Guinea-Bissau army chief detains top officers
BISSAU, Nov 22 (AFP) - Guinea-Bissau's self-proclaimed army
chief-of-staff,
General Ansumane Mane, has placed at least three senior officers under house
arrest and military guard, several sources said Wednesday.
Mane, a former junta leader in the small west African country, on Monday
"sacked" the man President Kumba Yala had put in the post, Colonel Verissimo
Correia Seabra, and declared null and void the promotion of 30 other
officers.
Top officers, including the deputy chief of general staff and the air
force
chief of staff, have been under house arrest since Monday and soldiers have
been posted outside their homes, an AFP correspondent said.
Colonel Correia Seabra was likewise detained, while unconfirmed reports
said that a fourth officer was being held.
Tensions between elements in the army and politicians were running high
again, but life went on calmly on Wednesday in Bissau, the capital, which
was
battered by artillery fire and saw an exodus of civilians in the late 199Os.
The UN Security Council on Tuesday warned Mane, who took power in a May
1999 coup until a civilian government was restored in February this year,
that
it would hold him responsible if his actions "lead to further unrest and
chaos".
On Wednesday morning, a goodwill commission of religious and civic
leaders
began trying to mediate a solution to the crisis between Mane and Yala,
whose
constitutional powers the ex-junta chief has defied, national radio
reported.
The outcome of the mediation bid remained unknown by around 1:00 p.m.
(1300
GMT), but a diplomat who asked not to be named said there was little hope of
settling an underlying crisis between politicians and a divided military.
"The general is stubborn and intransigent and the president cannot back
down," the diplomat said. "It's a deadlock."
Yala, who was elected head of state in January, has made no public
comment,
but after an emergency session, the government on Tuesday issued a statement
calling on the military "to submit themselves to the constitution and
legally
elected civilian authorities".
The UN Security Council made a similar appeal and urged Mane "to start
dialogue with the government on the basis of constitutional order."
Mane ousted the former president, Joao Bernardo Vieira on May 7 last
year,
before handing the country back to civilian rule. Since then, he has
appeared
reluctant to stay out of politics.
In a radio broadcast on Monday, Mane said he had decided to take over the
army because he was displeased with the appointments made last week by Yala
and contended that the president lacked the experience to take such
decisions.
He also claimed he had been the object of an attempt to "physically
eliminate" him.
Describing himself as "supreme commander of the military junta," he
appealed for calm, saying the affair was "purely military".
In Bissau on Tuesday, Defense Minister Fernando Correia Landim said in a
statement that the takeover was "anti-democratic" and that the authorities
would seek to assure that the law was respected.
However, some opposition groups criticised what they called the
government's mistakes and said Mane's decision was likely to "stabilise the
situation" in the army.
On October 4, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned the council that the
government faced serious economic difficulty, largely because of the need to
pay the salaries of almost 26,000 soldiers.
str-at/nb/gd
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