IRIN Focus on dismissal of prime minister

The announcement on Monday that Guinea-Bissau’s beleaguered president, Kumba Yala, had dismissed his prime minister appeared to herald the end of a political crisis sparked by calls for the resignation or dismissal of the head of government. However, one observer told IRIN on Tuesday that it would be premature to say that the crisis was over since Yala’s nominee to replace outgoing Prime Minister Caetano Intchama was yet to be approved by parliament, which is anything but a certainty. While Yala’s nominee, Foreign Minister Faustino Imbali, has the support of the ruling Partido da Renovacao Social (PRS) and one of the smaller parties in the legislature, all other opposition parties have come out against his appointment. The PRS has only 37 seats in the 102-member parliament. Thus, to obtain the approval of Imbali’s nomination, Yala needs the support of either the Resistencia da Guine-Bissau/Movimento Bafata (RGB/MB), which has 28 parliamentarians, or the Partido Africano para a Independencia de Guine e Cabo Verde (PAIGC – 23 seats). However, both expressed opposition to Imbali’s appointment in declarations to the media on Monday. Should the two parties maintain their opposition, Guinea-Bissau could face a prolongation of the crisis that developed some two weeks ago when the PRS pressed for Yala to drop the prime minister. Intchama’s detractors claimed that he was ineffective and constantly ill, which the prime minister denied. The PRS originally nominated Interior Minister Arthur Sanha to replace Intchama, who is an independent, but Yala rejected the nomination. However, following meetings on Friday with the PRS, the parliamentary opposition and other political parties, Yala announced Intchama’s dismissal. In the past three years, Guinea-Bissau has been plagued by a string of political, military and other crises. In June 1998, a rift between President Joao Bernardo Vieira and the chief of staff of the armed forces, General Ansumane Mane led to the dismissal of Mane, whom the president accused of carrying out illegal arms sales to the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC). Led by Mane, the bulk of the military immediately mutinied against Vieira. Mane’s self-styled Junta Militar (Military Junta) was supported by the MFDC, a group fighting since 1982 for the independence of the Casamance area in southern Senegal. Senegalese and Guinean troops backed the president and his ‘aguentas’, a militia recruited mainly from within his Pepel ethnic community. In May 1999, Vieira’s government was overthrown and replaced by a transitional administration made up of the Junta and handpicked civilians that went on to hold presidential and legislative elections in November. The presidential polls went to a second round in January, which Yala won. “Despite the elections we had more or less a parallel government in the country in the person of the Military Junta, so the government was completely paralysed,” Samuel Nana-Sinkam, representative of the UN Secretary General in Guinea-Bissau, told IRIN. This was confirmed by various observers. Yet another crisis arose in November 2000, when Mane revoked Yala’s military appointments and announced the destitution of the chief of staff of the armed forces, whom Mane placed under house arrest along with other top military officers. They escaped and fighting ensued between forces loyal to the government and supporters of the Junta. Within days the loyalist forces had regained control and, on 30 November, the government announced that Mane had been killed. Then, in January, the RGB/MB withdrew from the government, charging that it had not been consulted over a cabinet reshuffle and calling for Intchama’s dismissal. Issues awaiting the attention of Intchama’s successor include the detention of about 130 members of the military accused of supporting Mane, and the apparent involvement of Guinea-Bissau in the Casamance conflict: clashes between the Guinea-Bissau military and MFDC fighters have been reported this year along the border with Senegal. The new government also needs to take steps to revive health, education and other social sectors as well as the country’s battered economy, which suffered greatly during the 1998-1999 war, and attend to the demands of underpaid state employees who are also demanding higher wages. Another challenge awaiting the government is the collection of thousands of weapons in private hands. In addition the hundreds of young people who leave school each year and are unable to further their studies or to obtain jobs constitute a latent time bomb, one humanitarian official said.