Government closes main private radio

Guinea-Bissau's government ordered the closure of the country's main private radio station on Thursday, barely two months before general elections on 20 April. The state secretariat for information ordered Radio Bombolom closed, saying it was guilty of "repeated wrongdoing" and of jeopardizing the country's independence. The Portuguese news agency, Lusa, reported the radio's administrator, Agnelo Regala, who is also an opposition leader, as saying the closure represented "an effort to introduce a fierce dictatorship" by President Kumba Yala ahead of the elections. The closure of the radio station followed the arrest of several opposition and human rights activists by security police in recent weeks. These included the vice-president of Guinea-Bissau's Human Rights League, João Vaz Mane, who has been held without charge and without being able to contact his lawyer or family for more than two weeks. On Thursday, the Portuguese chapter of Amnesty International (AI), in Lisbon named Mané a "prisoner of conscience" and said it would campaign for his release. However on Sunday, news agencies again reported the arrest of another five prominent opposition politicians - including former prime minister Carlos Correia and former economy minister Filinto Barros. The five were members of the country's third largest political party, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC). Meanwhile a Portuguese television channel, RTP-Africa, said on Thursday it would keep its Bissau bureau closed until the government reviewed an expulsion order against bureau chief João Pereira da Silva, Lusa reported. RTP-Africa suspended its activities after da Silva was expelled on 30 November, following a news report that AI had demanded a government investigation into the 2001 killing of the former head of the military junta that ruled the country in 1999, Brigadier General Ansumane Mané. On 1 February, the foreign ministers of Portugal and Guinea-Bissau had said after a meeting in Lisbon that the RTP dispute had been resolved. The April elections were to have been held at the end of 2003. However in November, Yala sacked his government, saying it was incompetent and in December he announced early elections.