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IRIN-West Africa: Guinea Bissau background briefing on the military rebellion 98.6.18
A West African capital in ruins
In nearly two weeks of sustained shelling by rival veterans of the independence war against Portugal a generation ago, the capital of Guinea Bissau has been reduced to ruins. Key buildings in Bissau city have been destroyed, its infrastructure has broken down, the population has fled and bodies lie rotting in the streets.
Analysts said the extent to which Guinea Bissau will now join the ranks of countries in West Africa, like Sierra Leone and Liberia, in need of outside policing and humanitarian aid is something international relief agencies and donor governments will have to assess in coming weeks.
As a picture of the situation emerged from relief agencies, diplomats, the media and the Roman Catholic Church, events have shown that the crisis also has wider ramifications involving Senegal and Guinea, which both sent troops to help put down the military rebellion, and The Gambia which has attempted to mediate an end to days of sustained artillery bombardments.
How it started
The crisis was triggered when President Joao Bernardo Vieira appointed a new army chief on 5 June to replace General Ansumane Mane who was sacked in January on charges of allowing arms to be smuggled to separatists in Senegal's trouble southern province of Casamance. A day later, Mane, who fought alongside President Vieira during the 13-year war against Portugal, seized the strategically placed army headquarters in the Bra district which overlooks the city and lies on the main road towards the airport. As the exchanges of artillery fire intensified, the French and Portuguese navies sent ships to evacuate foreigners. Missionary and diplomatic reports said most of the city's 300,000 people had fled.
Portuguese media reported that the main hospital, the finance ministry and the deserted American and Swedish embassies have been largely destroyed after taking direct hits.
Church appeals for help
Bissau's Bishop, Settimio Ferrazzetta, in an appeal for assistance this week, said that not only had most of the population fled, but hundreds of people had been killed and many homes had been destroyed. In a communique to the Vatican's Missionary Service News Agency (MISNA), Bishop Ferrazzeta described the state of the city as a tragedy: "There is nothing; no food, no medicines, no fuel. I beg that you do all that is possible in Europe to get us the necessary aid to prevent the death of a large part of our population." The missionary agency also reported that tens of thousands who had fled inland were now living in makeshift camps and in need of food and water. So far, there has been no other independent assessment of casualties other than the Church accounts. The Catholic mission in Mansoa, about 50 km northeast of Bissau on the Senegal road, reported more than 150,000 people camping in the area.
The key personalities
In 1974, Guinea Bissau became the first Portuguese colony to gain independence. The latest fighting, diplomats said, points to a deepening internal rift in the ruling Partido Africano da Independencia da Guinea e Cabo Verde (PAIGC) which has plagued the country ever since. Vieira, popularly known as Nino, was appointed prime minister that year by Luis Cabral, the first president and a founder of the PAIGC. Vieira overthrew him in a coup in 1980, accusing him of endemic corruption and mismanagement. Today, broadcasts from the radio station seized by Mane are making the same charges against Vieira.
Born in Bissau in 1939, Vieira has survived at least
two previous coup attempts. Trained as an electrician,
according to Portuguese analysts, he is generally regarded
as a soldier and man of action. He was also an outsider
to the mixed race elite of the PAIGC, many of whom
came from the Cape Verde islands. He had trained in
China before joining the guerrilla war against Portuguese
rule in 1960. Unconfirmed media reports said he had
recently made a number of trips to Europe and had moved
his wife and children to Paris amid speculation of
a coup.
Mane, born in Gambia, is also a veteran of the independence
war. He was sacked in January with 13 other senior
officers alleged to to have smuggled weapons over the
border to the Casamance separatists. He later told
a parliamentary commission that President Vieira had
also profited from the smuggling, and the fighting
broke out a day before the commission was due to have
announced its findings in the smuggling affair.
Mediation efforts
The most important mediation efforts so far have been by The Gambia's foreign minister, Lamine Sidat Jobe, who is visiting Bissau, and Bishop Ferrazzetta. The United Nations and the European Union have called for a ceasefire.
The prognosis
Bishop Ferrazzeta said there was no doubt that Mane's rebellion had widespread military support. It was not only gaining support in the capital, but also spreading to barracks elsewhere in the country. Although news reports said forces loyal to President Vieira were making gains with Senegalese help, analysts said his future was by no means certain.
"One thing is certain," said the Portuguese daily, 'Publico', in an editorial. "Even if the revolt is put down, Vieira will have lost all his prestige internally. He no longer enjoys the respect of the armed forces or his citizens. He will be a Senegalese puppet in Bissau."
The rebellion, it added, had provided Senegal the chance
to stem the arms flow to Casamance rebels and enabled
Dakar to assert itself as the power in this region
of West Africa.
Abidjan, 18 June 1998
[ends]
[The material contained in this communication comes to you via IRIN West Africa, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci for more information or subscription. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this report, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are archived on the Web at: http://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha..unon.org. Mailing list: irin-wa-weekly]
From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980618161749.3394A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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