Government accuses Yala of coup attempt, sticks to election date

The government of Guinea-Bissau has accused former president Kumba Yala of trying to stage a coup by briefly occupying the presidential palace with a group of soldiers and has threatened to put him on trial. A security source told IRIN on Thursday that several of those who helped Yala break into the palace in the early hours of Wednesday morning had been detained for questioning, even though Yala himself had been allowed to go home. Those arrested included several members of the presidential guard, the source added. The group left the single-storey building peacefully a few hours after they broke in after being ordered out by General Tagme Na Wai, the chief of staff of the armed forces. Prime Minister Carlos Gomes later described their action as an "attempted coup d'etat" and praised the military high command for remaining loyal to his elected government. The government said in a statement after an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday that it had ordered the Interior Ministry and the Defence Ministry to investigate the bizarre episode. The statement said the government had also asked the Public Prosecutor "to set in motion the legal mechanisms to identify those responsible." Yala, who was ousted by a bloodless coup in September 2003, claimed earlier this month that he was still the country's rightful leader and demanded that he be allowed to complete his elected term. Yala is also a leading candidate in presidential elections due on 19 June to complete Guinea-Bissau's return to constitutional rule. The former philosophy lecturer, who has a long history of making contradictory statements, issued a written declaration on Thursday denying that he had ever tried to occupy the presidential palace. "I never occupied the presidential palace or was ever within its grounds," Yala said. Interim President Henrique Rosa immediately called him a liar. Rosa also brushed aside a suggestion by President Abdoulaye Wade of neighbouring Senegal that next month's presidential election should be postponed. The interim head of state bluntly told Wade not to interfere in Guinea-Bissau's internal affairs. Confirming that the presidential election would take place on schedule, Rosa told reporters during a visit to the offices of the National Electoral Commission: "I must ask President Abdoulaye Wade to take care of his own problems, and he has quite a few of them to deal with in Senegal, leaving Guinea-Bissau to pursue its own path." Wade is widely seen as a close ally of Yala, although the Senegalese leader issued a statement on Wednesday, publicly condemning his attempt to occupy the presidential palace. When Yala was first elected president in 2000 he closed down all the bases on the Guinea-Bissau side of the border used by separatist guerrillas in Senegal's southern Casamance region, a move that helped restore peace. Last Sunday, Wade was one of three West African heads of state to visit Guinea-Bissau for talks with the country's political and military leaders to try and prevent any trouble in the run-up to the presidential election. The following day, the Senegalese leader sent a plane to fly Yala to Dakar for further discussions. Parliamentary elections were held in this former Portuguese colony of 1.3 million people in March last year. They were won by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) which subsequently took power, while Yala's Social Renovation Party (PRS) emerged as the largest opposition group in parliament. Life in Bissau returned to normal on Thursday, 24 hours after the country's latest political crisis. Shops, markets and government offices were all open and people thronged the streets.