* ECOWAS say talks under way to restore civilian rule
* Guinea-Bissau military ban political demonstrations
* Amnesty denounces military’s “repressive measures”
* Detained leaders will not be returned to power -military
(Adds military spokesman’s comments on detained leaders)
April 17 (Reuters) – By Alberto Dabo
BISSAU, April 17, Reuters – The African Union (AU) suspended
Guinea-Bissau on Tuesday over last week’s coup, adding to
pressure on military chiefs who said they were ready to restore
power to civilians after talks with regional mediators.
“The (AU’s) Peace and Security Council decides to suspend
with immediate effect Guinea Bissau from all activities…until
restoration of constitutional order,” AU Commissioner for Peace
and Security Ramtane Lamamra said in Addis Ababa.
Foreign governments and international organisations have
condemned Guinea-Bissau’s military for cutting short a
presidential election in the impoverished West African state,
detaining front-runner and former Prime Minister Carlos Gomes as
well as interim President Raimundo Pereira.
Guinea-Bissau’s Catholic bishops also condemned the coup,
while Amnesty International accused the army of clamping down on
protests, the media and freedom of movement.
The former Portuguese colony has seen several coups and army
revolts since independence in 1974 and the latest is a blow to
Western donors’ efforts to reduce military meddling in politics
and counter the influence of Latin American drug-trafficking
cartels using the country as a transhipment point.
Suspension is the African Union’s normal response to any
interruption of constitutional rule in one of its members.
A high-level delegation from the West African regional
grouping ECOWAS met Guinea-Bissau’s military overnight and
ECOWAS Commission head Desire Kadre Ouedraogo told reporters
there was an agreement “on the return to constitutional order”.
Lieutenant-Colonel Daha Bana na Walna, spokesman for the
Guinea-Bissau army leadership, said ECOWAS would send a
technical team to help restore civilian rule. He said the
country was calm and there was no disorder.
ECOWAS had also insisted in the talks that Gomes Junior and
Pereira be released. “As soon as the conditions of security
exist for this, they will be freed,” na Walna said.
But he later told reporters in Bissau that the return to
political power of Gomes Junior and Pereira was “out of the
question”, and confirmed that the aim of the April 12 army
intervention had been to end their mandates.
Many residents have fled the tense uncertainty of post-coup
life in Bissau, the crumbling coastal capital, for the interior.
The military chiefs, appealing for calm, said in a
communique they were banning all public demonstrations.
Amnesty said fear and insecurity were growing after the
military halted protests and shut down private radios.
“Increasingly repressive measures are being employed by the
military as they try to stifle mounting criticism within the
country and internationally,” Marise Castro, Amnesty
International’s Guinea Bissau expert, said in a statement.
SHADOWY COUP LEADERSHIP
The London-based rights group called for the release of
Gomes Junior and Pereira, saying they were being held at Mansoa
Barracks, 60 km (37 miles) northeast of Bissau. “Reportedly,
both men are being held incommunicado in a mosquito-infested
small cell with no water or toilet facilities,” it said.
Gomes Junior suffers from diabetes, Amnesty added.
Na Walna told reporters the two men were being well treated
and were receiving food prepared by their own families.
It was the second coup in West Africa in less than a month.
A March 22 military takeover in Mali left that Sahel country
split in two with Tuareg and Islamist rebels holding the north.
Guinea-Bissau’s military has announced the formation of a
“national transition council” to prepare for fresh elections.
But the main political party, PAIGC, has refused to take part,
robbing this move of any credibility.
Gomes Junior and Pereira are PAIGC members, and the former
was expected to win a presidential election run-off on April 29,
which was prevented by the coup.
Gomes Junior was unpopular with military chiefs because he
backed plans to reform the bloated army, which is accused of
involvement in drug-trafficking by Western security agencies.
Confusion persists over who masterminded the coup.
A shadowy self-styled “Military Command” said it acted to
head off what it alleged was a secret pact between Gomes Junior
and Angola to “annihilate Guinea-Bissau’s armed forces”.
Angola had been providing military trainers and advisers to
the smaller state in a military cooperation mission. But it
announced earlier this month that it was ending the mission.
Guinea-Bissau military spokesmen have declined to confirm
rumours that armed forces Chief of Staff General Antonio Indjai
was also removed in the coup, saying only that he was “safe”.
Many believe Indjai, the nation’s most influential military
figure, was the architect. “The question has been whether Indjai
is in detention or behind the coup but the consensus now is that
it is the latter,” one Bissau-based diplomat said.
(Additional reporting by Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa, Pascal
Fletcher and Mark John in Dakar; Writing by Pascal Fletcher;
Editing by Tim Pearce)
