President says army mutiny is over

The president of Guinea Bissau, Henrique Rosa, has declared that a two-day army mutiny sparked off by a protest over salary arrears is over and the mutineers on Friday issued a statement on a popular local radio station urging all troops to return to their barracks. "The revolt has come to an end and there will be no more acts of violence in Guinea-Bissau," Rosa said in a radio broadcast on Thursday night following six hours of negotiations with the mutineers. He described the incident as "a hiccup on the path back towards the normalisation of life in the country" and urged international donors not to penalise the government for what had happened. The mutiny, which began on Wednesday, led to the killing of General Verissimo Correia Seabra, the chief of staff of the armed forces, and Colonel Domingos de Barros, its head of human resources. All the country's other top military commanders went into hiding and this raised fears that a coup was under way in the former Portuguese colony in West Africa, which has a history of political instability. Diplomatic sources said the chiefs of staff of the army, navy and air force had all sought refuge in Western embassies. However the mutineers themselves issued a statement on Thursday, denying that they were trying to overthrow the country's elected government and stressing that the protest was connected simply to a pay dispute. On Friday they broadcast a statement on Radio Bombolom, a popular private radio station in the capital Bissau, urging all soldiers taking part in the protest to return to their barracks. Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior said the government had reached agreement with the mutineers and the two sides would sign a memorandum of understanding shortly. He had earlier accused unnamed opposition leaders of inciting the mutiny, which was led by a battalion of 600 troops which had served for nine months with the UN peacekeeping force in Liberia. The mutineers complained they were still owed special payments associated with the mission, which ended in July, along with other pay arrears. They also aired grievances about poor living conditions in military barracks and rampant corruption in the upper echelons of the armed forces. However, several military units in the capital Bissau, including the air force and the army's influential mechanised brigade, remained on the sidelines of the dispute, and the revolt did not spread to any military barracks in the interior. Artur Sanha, the leader of the opposition Social Renovation Party (PRS), which lost out to Gomes Junior's African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) in parliamentary elections last March, said categorically on Friday that his party had nothing to do with the rebellion. He said the PRS was "a party of tolerance and non-violence," but went on to accuse Gomes Junior's government of negligence and failing to deal seriously with important issues. Western governments and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has intervened repeatedly over the past five years to try and stabilise the political situation in Guinea-Bissau, expressed alarm that the country's return to democracy was in danger of being derailed. ECOWAS Executive Secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas said on arrival in Bissau at the head of a crisis mission on Friday: "We cannot continue like this, always having serious crises in Guinea Bissau... We are here to see what we can do to stabilise the situation in this country." Chambas, a Ghanaian, was accompanied by Senegal's Minister of Industry Landine Savane and General Abdoulaye Fall, the personal military advisor of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade. Luis da Foneca, the Executive Secretary of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) also arrived in Bissau on Friday. He described the situation as "very serious and dramatic." However, everyday life in this country of 1.3 million people continued undisturbed by the army mutiny. Shops, markets and government offices remained open throughout the crisis. Apart from a rowdy street protest by several dozen mutinous soldiers on Wednesday there was little sign of an increased military presence in the city. The one delicate issue, which all those involved in the crisis have so far avoided talking about publicly, is who killed Correia Seabra and de Barros and what action, if any, will be taken to apprehend and punish their killers. Correia Seabra led a bloodless coup in September last year which deposed the chaotic regime of former president Kumba Yala and paved the way for parliamentary elections in March. Presidential elections are due to follow in March 2005 to complete Guinea-Bissau's return to democracy. The country, which suffered a bitter civil war between 1998 and 1999, is one of the poorest in Africa. The government relies heavily on foreign aid to pay its employees and maintain basic services such as health and education. Government services all but collapsed during Yala's three-year rule, during which the capital Bissau suffered long electricity blackouts and civil servants went unpaid for months on end.