Coup leaders let a civilian become interim president

The military officers who seized power in Guinea-Bissau a week ago, have agreed in principle to let a civilian take over as president of an interim government which will rule for up to two years while fresh elections are organised. General Verissimo Correia Seabra, who declared himself acting head of state, told visiting Senegalese interior minister Macky Sall on Sunday that he was willing to step aside to let a civilian become interim president. He also gave the same pledge to Mozambican parliamentary affairs minister Francisco Caetano Madeira, who arriived as an envoy of the African Union. But military leaders remained locked in discussions with the leaders of 17 political parties on Monday over what form the new government of this small West African country should take and who should become president and prime minister. Sources at the meeting said there was a general consensus that Henrique Pereira Rosa, a respected local businessman with no political afiliation should become interim president. He was head of the National Electoral Commission during Guinea-Bissau's first multi-party elections in 1994. However, opinions were divided over whether Antonio Artur Sanha, secretary general of the Social Renovation Party (PRS) of deposed president Kumba Yala should become prime minister, they added. The sources said Sanha was the military junta's favourite for the job, but several civilian leaders objected that he was not politically independent. Others meanwhile expressed concern over charges that Sanha had killed Florinda Baptista, a woman with whom he reportedly had a relationship, while he was interior minister in 2001. Sanha was sacked by Kumba Yala soon after her death, but court proceedings against him were dropped for lack of evidence. Correia Seabra, the chief of staff of the armed forces, ousted Kumba Yala in a bloodless coup on 14 September to prevent this former colony of 1.3 million people sliding into political and administrative chaos. Kumba Yala was elected with a strong majority in early 2000, but soon alienated most of his former supporters. He dissolved parliament in November last year after it passed a vote of no confidence in him and then delayed four times the holding of fresh legislative elections. Kumba Yala also engaged in endless cabinet reshuffles and his bankrupt government owed soldiers, civil servants, teachers and hospital workers several months of pay arrears. An ad-hoc commission of political leaders and military officers chaired by Jose Camnate Na Bissign, the Roman Catholic bishop of Bissau, proposed on Friday that fresh parliamentary elections should be held in six months time and presidential elections a year later. It also recommended that the interim government be held accountable to a Transitional National Council, a broad-based council of civilian and military representatives which would act as a nominated legislature and consultative body until the holding of parliamentary elections. Sall told the Senegalese news agency APS after meeting Correia Seabra on Sunday that he had passed on a suggestion from Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade that the Guinea-Bissau army should establish a military watchdog committee to ensure that the transition process was properly implimented.