Gambia detains Guinea Bissau refugees
2012-05-29 20:07 http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Gambia-detains-Guinea-Bissau-refugees-20120529Banjul - Gambia's immigration ministry said
on Tuesday Guinea-Bissau's former army chief, elections chief and ousted
interior minister were being detained "for security reasons" after
fleeing to Banjul.
Former army chief Jose Zamora Induta, elections
commission chief Desejado Da Costa and Fernando Gomes, who was interior
minister in the government overthrown in the country's latest coup last
month, fled Guinea-Bissau over the weekend.
Gambia's immigration
department spokesperson Ba Ensa Jawara told AFP the three, who were
reported to have passed through Senegal's southern Casamance region,
"arrived in the country early on Saturday morning and are currently
being held".
He said he could not give further details on the reasons for detaining the three.
"For security reasons, they are currently being held," he added.
The
three had sought refuge in the European Union mission in Bissau after
the April 12 coup, which aborted a presidential election ahead of a
second round of voting.
Induta was ousted as military chief two
years ago by General Antonio Indjai, considered the man behind the
latest coup in the west African nation, where decades of power struggles
between the army and state have caused chronic instability.
Last
week coup leaders vowed to return to their barracks after transitional
authorities formed a new government including a colonel who joined the
coup but excluding the former ruling party.
A regional peace force
has also started deploying in the country - which has become a hub for
cocaine smuggling from Latin America to Europe - in an attempt to help
the transitional authorities stabilise it and organise elections in a
year.
- AFP