BISSAU, Nov 27 (AFP) - Guinea-Bissau authorities had arrested almost 200
army officers and politicians by Monday, along with separatist fighters from
neighbouring Senegal, whom they accuse of working with fugitive General
Ansumane Mane in a foiled coup bid.
   A humanitarian source, who asked not to be named, said those detained
included "73 officers and top politicians very close" to Mane, a former
military ruler who has been on the run since a foiled rebellion last week.
   On the basis of a count established late Sunday, security services were
also holding 108 fighters from neighbouring Casamance province, in southern
Senegal, who had rallied to Mane, the source said.
   Diplomatic sources in the capital Bissau confirmed the report.
   Mane last Wednesday and Thursday led a rebellion against President Kumba
Yala, after falling out with the head of state over a series of military
appointments, but fled following clashes in and around the capital Bissau.
   The government later accused the renegade general of plotting a coup with
opposition politicians, saying it had found "a secret list of people who
were
to occupy positions in a future government."
   Prime Minister Caetano Ntchma told AFP "there will not be a witchhunt,"
but
confirmed Sunday that several opposition party leaders had already been
arrested.
   Mane's whereabouts remained unknown.
   The president of the former sole, ruling African Party for the
Independence
of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), Francisco Benante, was arrested at
his home, where a cache of weapons and grenades was found, Ntchma said.
   A leading opposition figure, Agnelo Regala, was arrested on Saturday
along
with Rambout Barcelo, president of the Union for Change party, and two of
his
party's deputies in the national assembly.
   Only hours before his arrest, Regala had warned that the government was
carrying out a "political cleansing" operation with the help of the army.
   The former leader of Guinea-Bissau's human rights league and president of
the Guinean Socialist Alliance, Fernanado Gomes, was also arrested.
   Gomes, who heads a political forum grouping together five small parties,
had organised a rally against the government on November 15.
   The humanitarian source confirmed that the group of 73 officers and top
politicians was being held at the central police station in Bissau.
   The other detainees, including some Casamance rebels who are close to
Mane,
were being held in several military camps in Bissau and in a camp at Mansoa,
in the centre of the country.
   A mediation team led by UN envoy Samuel Nanan Sinkam, Bissau Archbishop
Jose Camnato and the Guinean and Gambian ambassadors, is seeking to resolve
the political crisis without bloodshed.
   The team on Monday broadcast a radio appeal to Mane to "take refuge in a
mosque or a church". Initial military reports said he had indeed holed up in
a
church at Quinhamel parish north of the capital, but the local priest denied
this.
   Between June 1998 and May 1999, Mane led the military in an insurrection
against then PAIGC president Joao Bernardo Vieira, when each accused the
other
of trafficking in arms to Casamance separatists.
   Several hundred people were killed when Vieira was ousted.
   The Casamance Movement of Democratic Forces (MFDC) has always had bases
in
Guinea-Bissau where one of the leaders of the group's armed wing, Salif
Sadio,
has taken refuge.
   Other members of the MFDC who are opposed to Sadio, have joined the
loyalist Guinea-Bissau forces, several sources in Bissau said.
   Casamance rebels fought alongside Mane's men in his first uprising which
led to to the downfall of Vieira, despite his support from the Guinean and
Senegalese armies.
   hts/sa/nb

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