Loyalists want troop withdrawal rescheduled

Loyalist forces in Guinea Bissau have proposed a longer withdrawal timetable for foreign troops allied to them, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported today. Loyalist armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Arsenio Balde said over state radio today that the proposal had been handed to the Joint Military Commission, which includes the former foes of President Joao Bernardo Vieira - the Military Junta - and the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG.

Some of the estimated 3,000 Senegalese and Guinean troops, who came to support Vieira against the military uprising, still remain in the country. Under the peace accord signed in November 1998 between Junta leader General Ansumane Mane and Vieira, the Guineans and Senegalese should leave by 28 February at the latest, as ECOMOG troops arrive. So far, 600 ECOMOG troops have been deployed in Guinea Bissau. It is unclear if more will be arriving.

Senegal announced that 300 of its troops had left Guinea Bissau yesterday. This, the third withdrawal this month, brings close to 900 the number of troops Dakar has brought home since the end of fighting in the capital earlier this month.