Unpoliced waters and remote islands a haven for drug smugglers

Guinea-Bissau has become West Africa’s main transit point for drugs on their way from South America to Europe, according to the country’s top drug enforcement official. And while chief inspector Joao Alexandre Forbs is determined to clean up his country’s image, the lack of resources at his disposal is a major obstacle. “Smugglers always target the weakest points,” he told IRIN. “But we are ready to stop this wave which is rolling over our country.” According to Forbs, weak border security and a lack of police resources make Guinea Bissau very attractive to drug traffickers wanting to move cocaine from Latin America, primarily Brazil, to more lucrative European markets. In this former Portuguese colony, ranked sixth from the bottom on the UN’s Human Development Index, there is no coast guard and its navy has no boats for patrolling territorial waters. Earlier this month, in an incident that is still being investigated, a military ship from neighbouring Guinea entered Bissau’ port undetected and unauthorised before mysteriously sinking. Rumours that the ship might have been carrying arms have not been confirmed but the incident highlights the country’s limited ability to police its own waters. But there is simply no money in this chronically unstable country that has seen two coups in the last decade and has been unable to pay its civil servants’ salaries in four months. And the inauguration on 1 October of a new president may not improve Guinea-Bissau’s lot. Joao Bernardo “Nino” Vieira, who had served as president for nearly two decades before being ousted in the fighting of 1998-99, returned to power through elections in July. But an intense rivalry between Vieira and Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, who earlier this year threatened to resign if his nemesis won the presidency, has led to worries the state could be paralysed or worse. Political cohabitation will be necessary, however, if the country wants to convince the international community for help in rebuilding the country after years of fighting and neglect. A donors’ round table is tentatively scheduled for November in Lisbon. But while Guinea-Bissau is hoping to get over US $200 million out of these discussions, it is not asking for help in its efforts to curb drug trafficking. Nevertheless, the police have seized millions of dollars of Latin American cocaine so far this year, as well as marijuana and hashish, a fact which may suggest the extent of the trafficking. “Seizures are nothing more than the end of the process,” UN drug chief Antonio Mazitelli told French radio station RFI last month. This process often involves fishing boats that either make detours to South America to pick up a much more lucrative cargo than the sea can offer or they pick up the illegal cargo mid-ocean from another boat or small plane. They also make use of Guinea-Bissau’s many islands which provide a smugglers’ haven out of reach of the law But for Forbs, left with the very difficult task of fighting a rising tide with insufficient resources, the country’s honour is at stake. “We have to convince people, both at the national and international levels, that we are not looking the other way,” he said.