Guinea-Bissau PM resumes duty

Guinea-Bissau Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior has resumed his duty after arrested by mutineers earlier in the week, local media reported on Saturday morning.
Guinea Bissau's Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, pictured in March 2010, emerged from urgent talks with President Malam Bacai Sanha on Friday, saying he would not resign after an army mutiny.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)
The soldiers who entered the office of the prime minister and detained him on Thursday left the building the next day. Gomes Junior then went to meet with President Malam Bacai Sanha, who expressed trust in him and asked him to remain on the post, according to local press and radio.

The resumption of Gomes Junior's work as the prime minister was reportedly the most important topic in the talks.

Reports also said the former chief of defense staff, General Jose Zamora Induta, was still confined to the air base near the capital Bissau.

Induta and 40 other officers were also arrested in Thursday's mutiny, in which deputy army chief Antonio Indjai replaced him.

Despite the rebellious move which was denounced by many as a coup, Indjai on the same day declared the army was still submissive to political powers.

The detention went parallel with the release of the former head of marines, the rear admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchute, who had been accused of plotting a coup in August 2008. The ex-chief of Guinea-Bissau's marines took refuge at the UN office in Guinea-Bissau known as UNOGBIS after returning to Guinea- Bissau in a canoe from Gambia on Dec. 28, 2009.

UNOGBIS had previously indicated willingness to settle the issue in a "peaceful and legal" way.

Na Tchute and Indjai are seen as the men behind the action by soldiers on Thursday.

Although President Sanha declared later in the day that "calm" had returned, the incident sparked an outcry from the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and the United States.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Thursday called on the military and political leadership in Guinea-Bissau to "resolve differences by peaceful means and to maintain constitutional order and ensure respect for the rule of law."

The unrest in Guinea-Bissau is the latest in a series to hit West Africa, where Mauritania, Guinea and Niger have witnessed the military coup since 2008.

The regional bloc ECOWAS was wary of another coup in Guinea- Bissau after President Joao Bernardo Vieira was assassinated on March 2, 2009. ECOWAS kept watch on the country until the holding of elections on June 28, 2009, when Sanha was elected the new president.

ECOWAS has since warned that the military reform is critical to ensure the post-assassination stability in Guinea-Bissau.

Instability including the 1998-1999 civil war has haunted the country of 1.5 million population since its independence from Portugal in 1974. Coup attempts have repeatedly hit the headlines in Guinea-Bissau, especially since 2008.

The West African country foiled a mutiny after holding a legislative election in November 2008, when the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde won the victory.

The Interior Ministry reported another "coup attempt" in early June 2009, just days ahead of the June 28 presidential election.

The country is among the poorest in the world, being ranked the 175th out of 177 nations in the U.N. Development Program's Human Development Index.

With a jagged Atlantic coastline, Guinea-Bissau is chosen by traffickers as a major hub for the flow of cocaine from Latin America to Europe.

Source:Xinhua