Politicians and military meet to pick a new cabinet

A committee of political party leaders and military officers chaired by the Roman Catholic bishop of Guinea-Bissau began to discuss the formation of a civilian-led transitional government on Tuesday, following the overthrow of President Kumba Yala. A delegation of foreign ministers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meanwhile remained locked in negotiations with General Verissimo Correia Seabra, the military chief of staff, who has assumed the position of interim head of state. The Portuguese news agency Lusa quoted an un-named Guinea-Bissau politician as saying that Nigeria and Senegal were pressing hard for Correia Seabra to step down and allow Kumba Yala to be reinstated. However, Commander Zamora Induta, the official spokesman of the 32-member military junta which siezed power in a bloodless coup on Sunday morning, ruled out Kumba Yala's return. He told reporters on Tuesday that ECOWAS had been pressing the military to withdraw, but stressed: “It’s out of the question”. The talks with the ECOWAS ministers began on Monday evening and continued late into the night. The two sides met again for several hours on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a 17-member ad hoc commission chaired by Roman Catholic bishop Jose Camnate da Bissing met to choose a transitional government to guide this former Portuguese colony of 1.3 million people to fresh elections. The 50-year-old bishop was appointed in 1999. He has frequently voiced concern about Guinea-Bissau’s political and social problems. He tried to mediate in the crisis of November 2000, when General Ansumane Mane staged an unsuccessful coup attempt against Kumba Yala that ended with his own death. Correia Seabra has given the commission 72 hours to pick a prime minister and a new broad-based cabinet. On Tuesday, he ordered government offices to remain closed until the new team of ministers takes office. The commission includes representatives of the country's main political parties - including Kumba Yala's Social Renovation Party (PRS), as well as four military officers. Although widely condemned abroad, the coup has been greeted with widespread relief at home. Kumba Yala was elected with 72 percent of the vote in what was generally agreed to have been a free and fair election and took power in February 2000. But his government proved erratic - Kumba Yala went through four prime ministers in less than three years and staged endless cabinet reshuffles. The economy fell apart, leaving the government bankrupt and unable to pay its soldiers or civil servants for months on end. The president - elected on a ticket of national unity - meanwhile quarreled with most of his former allies and clamped down on the country's independent media. The judiciary became paralysed after he sacked three supreme court judges and failed to replace them. Things came to a head in November last year when parliament passed a vote of no confidence against the 50-year-old former teacher, who liked to appear at public functions wearing a bright red woollen bobble hat. Kumba Yala responded by dissolving parliament and delaying four times the holding of fresh elections. Things came to a head after the National Electoral Commission announced last Friday that a voters' roll could not be drawn up in time for the latest date set for the poll, which was 12 October. Correia Seabra, 56, a leading figure in two previous military takeovers, in 1980 and 1999, said that what occurred on Sunday was not a coup, “but the putting right of a confused, intolerable situation”. Kumba Yala was taken into military custody for 24 hours and then sent home on Monday, along with the other members of his government. Correia Seabra has so far refused to set a date for fresh elections, but he has stressed repeatedly that he only plans to be head of state for a short while in an interim capacity. The capital Bissau remained calm on Tuesday. Although government offices remained closed, shops and markets were open and vehicles and pedestrians moved around the capital freely.