Mutineers amnestied but armed forces left leaderless

The government of Guinea-Bissau has signed an agreement with a group of soldiers who staged a mutiny last week, promising them an amnesty and the appointment of a new military high command. The memorandum of understanding, signed on Sunday night, pardons the mutineers who took to the streets of Bissau demanding the settlement of pay arrears. It also pardons all other military personnel who took part in military uprisings since the country's first coup d'etat in 1980. However, before the amnesty becomes effective, it must be endorsed by parliament. The agreement, which was signed by Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, stipulated that President Henrique Rosa, should appoint a new chief of staff of the armed forces. The soldiers who took part in last week's uprising killed the previous head of the armed forces, General Verissimo Correia Seabra, along with Colonel Domingos de Barros, the head of human resources of the military establishment. The commanders of the army, navy and air force, and several other high-ranking officers went into hiding when the mutiny began on Wednesday. Diplomatic sources said they had taken refuge in western embassies and were still there on Monday. The army mutiny was staged by a batallion of 600 soldiers which recently completed a nine-month tour with the UN peacekeeping force in Liberia. However, it did not spread to the rest of the armed forces. Most military units remained sidelined from the dispute. The mutineers themselves insisted all along that they were simply demanding the payment of long-standing salary arrears and the improvement of poor living conditions in military barracks. However diplomats in West Africa said there also appears to have been a political agenda behind the revolt, which Portugal, the former colonial power in Guinea-Bissau, described as attempted coup. Certainly, their main achievements have been political. The mutineers have got rid of the head of the armed forces and have secured impunity from prosecution for all those who attempted to overthrow successive governments over the past 24 years. The revolt was launched on the day that eight officers were due to go on trial for their alleged part in a December 2001 coup attempt against former president Kumba Yala. The court case has been postponed indefinitely. Yala was eventually overthrown by Correia Seabra in a bloodless coup on September 2003. The military commander quickly appointed a civilian-led transitional government which held parliamentary elections in March this year. Guinea-Bissau's return to democracy is due to be completed by the holding of presidential elections in March 2005. However, the man who put Guinea-Bissau on the path back to constitutional normality is now dead and if the promised amnesty is indeed applied his killers will go unpunished. Sunday's agreement with the mutineers stipulated that military pay arrears would be paid and housing conditions improved, but it did not give a timeframe for either action. The agreement also acknowledged the existence of corruption in the upper echelons of the armed forces. Prime Minister Gomes Junior said after signing the agreement with Major Baute Iamta Naman, the mutineers' representative, that China had offered to help rebuild military barracks throughout the country and work on this would start later this month. President Rosa said he had asked military officers to forward three names to him to fill the post of chief of staff of the armed forces. He was locked in negotiations with senior officers about this appointment on Monday. It was not immediately clear whether the chiefs of staff of the army, navy and air force, who were still in hiding, would retain their posts or be replaced.