by Tidiane Sy

   QUINHAMEL, Guinea-Bissau, Nov 27 (AFP) - This sleepy little Guinea Bissau
village was still in shock Monday after guns and uniforms flooded its
streets
and the army threatened to shell the place where the leader of last week's
army mutiny was thought to be hiding.
   Quinhamel has been bristling with soldiers hunting rebel General Ansumane
Mane, who declared himself head of the army but was forced to flee the
capital
Bissau, 40 kilometres (25 miles) away, when a bid openly to defy the elected
president turned sour.
   "I haven't had a wink of sleep for the last five days," said the town's
governor, Daniel Souleymane Embalo, whose house was surrounded by around 50
well-armed troops.
   "The inhabitants of Quinhamel are not used to seeing soldiers," the
governor explained. "When one of them comes near the house, even if it's
just
to ask for a glass of water, the children run away."
   Clustered in front of their houses and in the streets, the locals were
watching the "foreigners" who have taken over their town and who, on
Saturday,
threatened to shell it to shake out the hiding rebel leader, whose
whereabouts
have led to contradictory statements from Bissau authorities.
   Mane, a former military ruler, proclaimed himself army chief and "supreme
commander" of a revived junta last Monday, but fled to Quinhamel, according
to
some sources in the armed forces, after loyalist forces overcame his men in
fighting on Wednesday and Thursday that fighting 10 dead.
   While the whereabouts of the general remained uncertain, members of his
family, including his wife, were brought back to Bissau from Quinhamel on
Sunday.
   The renegade soldier ousted one head of state in May 1999 then ran a
junta
in parallel with a transitional adminstration until standing down last
February in favour of elected President Kumba Yala - whose government this
weekend denied that a witch-hunt was now on after several opposition figures
were arrested.
   The government does, however, claim that Mane had been plotting a coup
with
the backing of several political figures after his failed bid last week to
take back control of the army after objecting to military appointments made
by
Yala.
   Much of the small, impoverished country in tropical west Africa believes
the general is hiding in the parish of Our Lady, probably under the
protection
of the church, where about 200 people normally attend mass each Sunday.
   But the smiling, bearded parish priest, George Falcao, was adamant: "If
he
was here, we would have handed him over to the authorities as we did with
the
others."
   At no point, Falcao insisted, had his church sheltered the hunted rebel
leader. This Sunday, however, "more people than usual came to mass: perhaps
almost 300."
   "That probably has to do with the recent events," the priest suggested.
   hts/sa/nb

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