Human rights under a cloud

Guinea-Bissau is on the verge of falling back into a habit of human rights violations if nothing is done to stop current abuses, the chairman of its human rights league, Inacio Tavares, said. His comments, broadcast over the private radio station, Pingikiti, followed threats Tavares said he received for denouncing the beating of electricity utility workers by soldiers thought to be loyal to the former military junta leader, General Ansumane Mane, PANA reported on Monday. The soldiers had acted, PANA said, following a power outage at their Bissau base, where Mane lives. In another incident of intimidation, PANA said, President Kumba Yala’s bodyguard fired on the building housing the ‘Diario de Bissau’ newspaper before entering and threatening Bakary Mane, a reporter who had written stories about the excessive spending of the first lady. More recently, PANA added, “soldiers have stepped up threats and intimidation against the local media amid a tug-of-war between (the military) and the government following the dismissal of the navy commander, Lamine Sanha.” Sanha said he would not go unless ordered by Mane. It was under a similar situation - when then president Joao Bernardo Vieira dismissed Mane - that the latter launched an uprising, eventually toppling Vieira in mid-1999.