Troops kill 'narco-state' president in revenge for army chief's death

Published on Monday 2 March 2009 21:21

TROOPS yesterday assassinated the democratically elected president of Guinea-Bissau, Africa's leading "narco-state" and a stopping-off point for South American cocaine headed for Europe, after the army chief was killed in a bomb blast.

Diplomats in Bissau, capital of the tiny West African state, said Joo Bernardo Vieira, 69, who was returned to power in a 2005 election after an earlier spell as a military dictator, was killed at dawn during a three-hour gun and rocket battle around and inside his official residence.

A military spokesman said the assassination was carried out by soldiers loyal to General Tagme Na Waie, the army chief, who was killed by a bomb at his headquarters late on Sunday.

Braima Camara, a reporter at Guinea-Bissau's privately owned Radio Pindiquiti, said: "Some people are angry (with the president's assassination]. But some are also happy. I cannot see much sadness in their eyes."

Soldiers who captured the president said he had confessed to Gen Waie's murder. "After the confession, they shot him. That is what I was told," Camara said.

Portuguese reports said looters were taking furniture, electronic equipment, carpets and clothing from the presidential mansion, where doors had been torn off by rockets.

The president and the general were bitter political and ethnic rivals and both had survived recent assassination attempts.

Mr Vieira, of the minority Papel ethnic group, once blamed majority ethnic Balanta officers for attempting a coup against him, condemning several of them to death and others to long prison sentences. Among them was Gen Waie, who in the 1980s was left on a deserted island off Guinea-Bissau, according to his chief of staff. He was said to have been left there for years before he was allowed to return and officially pardoned by Mr Vieira.

After an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday, a military spokesman said the top brass had told government officials "this was not a coup d'tat".

The killing of Mr Vieira will be a cause of huge concern to both the European Union and the African Union.

Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, has become a conduit for Latin American cocaine heading to the EU, where 1kg fetches the equivalent of 23,000, nearly twice what it sells for in the United States.

Western officials estimate that the value of cocaine pouring through Guinea-Bissau in only one month is equivalent to the country's entire 150 million annual GDP. Cashew nuts are almost the only other foreign exchange earner for the country of 1.6 million people.

The geography is perfect for smuggling. The coast is a series of thousands of islands, rivers and swamps, many inaccessible by road. There are also hundreds of landing strips for light aircraft, built by the Portuguese during the 13-year war of independence that started in 1961.

Jean Ping, of the AU, which has said it will not recognise rulers who come to power in military coups, condemned Mr Vieira's assassination as a "criminal act".

Mohammed Ibn Chambas, head of the Economic Community of West African States, said: "It's not only the assassination of a president, it's the assassination of democracy."

Zamora Induta, a spokesman for Guinea-Bissau's military, said soldiers close to Gen Waie, who held Mr Vieira responsible for his death, had shot the president as he tried to escape. He added that the country could now "progress" because Mr Vieira had "blocked everything".

Mr Vieira had played a leading role in the guerrilla war against Portuguese rule that culminated in 1974 when Portugal ceded independence to its three African colonies, Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Mozambique.

In recent months, his government was increasingly unstable. Tensions between him and the military elite grew so strong that he recruited a 400-strong personal bodyguard.