Amine Saad Michel has already held this position in 2000 during the transition period after the 1998civil war.

The appointment of Amine Saad Michel will also re-open the case of the double murder of President Nino Vieira and Army Chief of Staff of Batista Tagme Na Wai in March 2009.

President Malam Bacai Sanha said at his inauguration on 8 September that the investigating these two cases was among his priorities.

He had also pledged to fight corruption, drug trafficking and impunity.

The appointment of Michael Saad Amine translates a move by the head of state to achieve his aforementioned objectives, as Luis Manuel Cabral, former Attorney General of the Republic reported on several occasions, death threats against him by anonymous phone calls.

This appointment comes shortly before the publication on 5 November of a report on the situation in Guinea-Bissau, which will be presented to the UN Security Council by Joseph Mutaboba, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General.

Ban Ki Moon availed himself of this opportunity to say that he is happy for the move by the new president and his team “to conduct investigations into the political assassinations in March and June 2009”.

The conclusion of the investigation will help to combat impunity and promote justice and national reconciliation, Ban was cited by the report as saying.

Source African Press Agency

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How People Arrived Here:

Luis Manuel Cabral(~launder OR ~laundered OR ~laundering OR ~fraud OR ~criminal)

The Prime Minister added that his government “will do everything in its power” to ensure that a committee tasked with finding out who carried out the killings can conduct its work “in a peaceful, transparent and credible manner.”

Already suffering from turmoil following years of political instability, misrule, grinding poverty and a flourishing illicit drug trade, Guinea- Bissau was further hit this year by assassinations of then President João Bernardo Vieira as well as the armed forces’ chief of staff and a presidential candidate.

The murders “revealed the vulnerabilities of our rule of law and the weaknesses of the system of national defense and security,” said Mr. Gomes.

He noted that the government was seeking financial, technical and other support from the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) to ensure that its committee investigating the killings can conduct its work with “objectivity, transparency and speed.”

Resolving the murders is “an essential condition to ensure true justice, to contribute to the consolidation of the democratic rule of law and the protection and promotion of human rights,” he told the annual high-level segment of the General Assembly.

The Prime Minister also stressed that his government is “firmly and unequivocally” against impunity. “We will not be a party to it, nor give cover to any type of crime,” he added.

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He was speaking at the closing of the two-day meeting on the reform project of the security and defense forces jointly organized by the European Union Commission (EU) and the Guinea-Bissau Defence Ministry and Civil Society.

According to him, this move is part of the reform within the security and defense forces by 2010 in Guinea-Bissau, which plans for a considerable reduction in the numbers of soldiers.

“The reform of the armed forces and the security sector is an imperative. That is why the international community and all the partners of Guinea-Bissau must contribute”, he added.

“Soldiers must leave the barracks and go back to civil life”, he underscored before adding that the recruitment of young men is considered to replace the old ones”.

The army is particularly influent in Guinea-Bissau, a poor country that became independent in 1974 following the eleven-year-long liberation war.

The country later experienced an eleven-month civil war from June 1998 to May 1999.

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Commander Induta was speaking at the opening of a one-day conference on security and defense reforms, organized by the European Commission in Bissau.

“My most fervent desire is to turn the armed forces into an institution worthy of the name, with capabilities to strictly exercise its prerogatives in the preservation of territorial integrity and the protection of citizens, instead of being a threat to them, as we witnessed it in the past.

“The EU has sent a mission to Guinea-Bissau, on the country’s request,” according to Gen. Juan Esteban Verastegui, the head of the European Commission, who came here to help Guinea-Bissau implement this reform project in the security and defense forces.

“We need to work together in the implementation of this project, which is meant to restore law and order in Guinea-Bissau”, Gen. Esteban added.

Reports indicate that there are approximately 15,000 troops in Guinea-Bissau, while the international community demands their reduction to only 4,000 men.

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The killings occurred just three months after the double assassinations of the country’s president Nino Vieira and the army chief of staff.

The authorities in the troubled West African nation claimed they had thwarted a coup attempt and that there had been “fatal victims” after intervention by the military police.

The United Nations office has swiftly condemned the killings as “murder.”

Though diplomatic sources said the victims were not identified in the Interior Ministry’s communiqué, the UN officials identified them as Baciro Dabo, an independent candidate in the forthcoming presidential elections, and Helder Proença, a member of Parliament and former minister of defense.

Officials said Proença was the leader of the coup attempt.

A third well-known figure, former Prime Minister Faustino Embali, was arrested, according to the UN, though several news reports said he had also been killed.

Diplomats and observers there said the atmosphere remained calm for now despite the killings, uncertainties still reign in the impoverished former Portuguese colony, globally acclaimed as an ideal transshipment point for drugs from Latin America, due to what many have blamed on the country’s institutions being so feeble with its leaders so susceptible to payoffs.

In early March 2009, the long-time president João Bernardo Vieira was assassinated, few hours after General Batista Tagme Na Waie, his old rival, was killed by a bomb.

There have been no prosecutions and few plausible explanations for those killings.

The UN, EU and the United States in their joint statements condemning the new violence, stressed that the latest killings only underscore the institutional weakness, raising alarm at this fresh evidence of the country’s deteriorated political climate.

The UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, voiced out his concern about the emerging pattern of killings of high profile personalities in Guinea-Bissau,” saying: “These criminal acts are a tragic setback for efforts to restore the rule of law and democratic processes in the country.”

The presidential elections are scheduled for June 28.

Dabo was killed early Friday in his home, diplomats and news agency reports said. Proença was shot in his car, along with a driver and a bodyguard.

The Interior Ministry said the coup leaders had planned to kill the armed forces chief, Jose Zamora Induta, and the Prime Minister, Carlos Gomes Jr., and dissolve the National Assembly and the Council of State.

But the head of a leading local radio station, the Rev. Davide Sciocco, said of the official explanations, “I have my doubts.”

He added: “It is not very clear why they killed them. All this story is very, very strange. This story is not clear to us.”

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“We need to extend security sector reform until November 2009,” Gen Juan Esteban Verástegui told reporters on 19 March, after submitting in his one-year mission report to Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior.

The call comes weeks after the assassination of President João Bernardo Vieira of Guinea-Bissau, following the killing of Army Chief of Staff Gen Tagme Na Wai, which dealt a severe blow to efforts of stable, civilian government in the coup-wracked country.

The reform mission began in March 2008 under a one-year mandate to streamline and modernize the country’s armed forces, police units, air force, navy and judiciary, with help from the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (UNOGBIS).

Up to 2,500 members of the armed forces are to be retired as part of the scheme. But so far just 30 army officers have been demobilized, according to Verástegui, who says the mission is still only in its planning and research stages.

The government lacks much of the $183 million budgeted to carry out needed reforms, according to UNOGBIS, and requires more donor support to do so.

Some analysts say the death of Gen Tagme Na Wai– who was opposed to military reform – could speed up the process. Na Wai was reluctant to see the ethnic Balanta group – dominant in the armed forces – lose control of the army through a reform process thus lessening its influence over the political agenda, according to the International Crisis Group.

During the 2008 legislative election campaign General Na Wai reacted bluntly to the Prime Minister’s promise to cut army manpower, warning that such a move would have grave consequences for the country.

But local journalists warn the 15 March appointment of Cdr Jose Zamora Induta as interim army chief and as head of a military commission formed after the 1 March killings could create a new barrier to military demobilization, as they fear he too, will oppose army reform.

Original Source IRIN

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Guinea-Bissauans, who have lived through decades of coups and counter-coups, face some of the world’s highest levels of maternal mortality and under-five malnutrition and many were hoping that recent parliamentary elections might be a step toward stability and recovery.

Army Chief of Staff Gen Tagme Na Wai was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade at the armed forces headquarters in the capital Bissau on 1 March. President Vieira died in a reprisal attack on 2 March, according to Sandji Fati, a retired army colonel who was close to the President.

The killings follow mounting tension between Na Wai and President Vieira.

The main roads in Bissau were sealed off on 2 March and most businesses were closed. Traffic in the capital was scarce and most residents stayed home.

“This is a very bad day for Guinea-Bissau. There is clearly a power vacuum now,” said Richard Moncrieff, West Africa director of think-tank the International Crisis Group.

“This shows a terrible struggle for creating a civilian power base and civilian politics in a country where the military feel they have the legitimate right to rule because they brought the country to independence,” Moncrieff said. “Civilian politicians will be keeping their heads down now.”

Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, considered by analysts to be a reformist politician, has little support base within the army, according to Moncrieff.

The security sector reform agenda, driven by the government and supported by international donors including the UN Peace Building Support Office (UNOGBIS), is clearly off-track, according to Moncrieff.

“Any further reform needs to tackle the heart of the problem – that people in power are prepared to use violence to settle political scores, and until this is sorted out, they are just playing around the edges.”

He added: “We need to reinforce the message that military power is unacceptable in West Africa, but finding the right way to do so is difficult.”

History of tension

In November President Vieira survived a gun attack on his home by mutinous soldiers, in an apparent coup attempt two days after election results were announced.

In early January Na Wai accused the presidential guard of attempting to assassinate him.

One expert who did not want to be named told IRIN the calculated nature of Na Wai’s assassination is highly unusual for Guinea-Bissau, pointing to the potential involvement of drug cartels.

Urging calm

José Zamora Induta, navy deputy chief of staff, issued a press release on 2 March urging people to remain calm and stay at home. The release said security forces would obey democratically elected institutions.

A military commission has been set up to investigate the killings and “the situation is under control”, the statement said.

But Algassimo Diallo, a resident of Bissau, told IRIN: “I do not trust soldiers will return power to civilian rule now.”

Original Source IRIN

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The two-member delegation includes the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas and the Chairperson of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers, Madame Minata Samate Cessouma, who is also Burkina Faso’s Minister of State for Regional Cooperation.

IDr. Chambas and Madam Cessouma will meet the President, Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister of Guinea Bissau as well as the leaders of the main political parties, the Chief of Defence staff and the Minister of Defence.

Before leaving Bissau, the delegation also intends to meet with the representatives of the AU, UN and EU and other foreign missions in the capital, an ECOWAS statement said here.

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In a press release issued Monday after the emergency Council of Ministers meeting copied to APA, the government described as barbaric the attack to assassinate President Vieira, which it said has political whiffs.

Government said the attack is related to the 16 November polls, which were widely regarded as free, fair and transparent.

The government “vehemently” condemned the act, which comes at a time when Guinea-Bissau is moving towards stability, as “criminal and unpatriotic”, the release added.

Bissau also vowed to use all legal, political and diplomatic means to safeguard democratic institutions, as well as the integrity and security of society.

The executive urged citizens to demonstrate calm, serenity and confidence in democratic institutions.

The government hailed the international community’s expressions of solidarity and unanimous condemnation of the coup, the release said.

Mutineers Sunday attacked President Nino Vieira’s Bissau-based residence, killing a member of the presidential escort.

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Gunfire broke out at President Joao Bernardo Vieira’s home in the early hours of 23 November, two days after the results of parliamentary elections that had been anticipated with guarded optimism by diplomats, donors and some Guinea-Bissauans.

Just before the poll one woman told IRIN: “We are tired of the politicians quarreling. We want water, we want electricity… we just want to have a normal daily life.”

The country’s lack of a water and sanitation infrastructure turns deadly every year, as the rainy season brings cholera to Guinea-Bissau. Only some 20 percent of residents of the capital, Bissau, have access to tap water, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). More than half the rural population get their water from rivers or unprotected wells. (Cholera contained but source still unknown)

Infant mortality stands at 119 per 1,000 live births, and malaria, acute respiratory infections, diarrhea and malnutrition remain the major killers of children, UNICEF says. Life expectancy in 2006 was 46 years. Compounding Guinea-Bissau’s chronic unrest and blocked development is drug-trafficking. The West African nation is a hub for drugs flowing from South America to Europe and the USA.(Assistance not sanctions needed to fight drug trade)

Local drug consumption has also become a problem.

Even as the parliamentary poll was taking place, Guinea-Bissau’s teachers were in the third month of a strike over salary arrears. Civil servants’ strikes are common.

Original Source IRIN

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In a telephone conversation, Ping informed Vieira that the AU was closely following developments in the West African country.

Ping reiterate the unwavering commitment of the AU to support constitutionality and definitely turn the page of coup d’états on the continent.

For his part, Vieira informed Ping of the failure of the mutiny and said Bissau has regained calm, but noted that the situation remains precarious and requires sustained attention.

Ping in a statement earlier, appealed to the country’s political and civil socieity actors to support the democratic institutions of their country and work towards strengthening them.

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