domingo, 4 de abril de 2010

G.Bissau's ousted army chief 'fine' after mutiny


BISSAU — Guinea-Bissau's army chief General Jose Zamora Induta "is fine", two days after he was overthrown and detained in an army mutiny, an aide to President Malam Bacai Sanha told AFP Saturday.
The statement came after the president asked a delegation headed by one of his advisors Mario Cabral to find out about the conditions under which Induta is being held, a source close to the president's office said.
Induta had complained about soldiers using profanities when they arrested him on Thursday.
"Zamora is being treated well and is fine," said Cabral, who is the president's diplomatic advisor, after seeing Induta at a barracks near the airport.
Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, who was also arrested, threatened and put under house arrest in the mutiny, said Friday after talks with Bacai, that the situation was "now stable.
"I can assure you that institutions will return to their normal functions," he added.
Witnesses on Saturday described Bissau as calm after the latest turmoil in the former Portuguese colony, which has lurched from coup to coup since independence in the 1970s.
The country's years of instability and institutional weaknesses have made it an easy target for druglords who traffic cocaine by air and sea, often escaping detection in Guinea-Bissau's porous coast, maze of mangroves and scattered archipelago.
AFP