GUINEA-BISSAU: President, prime minister try to iron out tension, avert crisis

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

BISSAU, 13 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - After giving each other the cold shoulder for almost two weeks, Guinea-Bissau's new President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira and Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior have finally met in a bid to set aside personal differences and heal a country in crisis.

But despite Wednesday’s first encounter between the two men since Vieira was sworn in as president on 1 October, fears remain of a top-level "cold war" in the tiny volatile nation.

Coming out of the half-hour meeting, which he described as cordial, Gomes Junior, who earlier this year called Vieira "a bandit and a mercenary who betrayed his own people", said he expected the relationship between the head of state and the head of government to be smoother sailing from now on.

"Together we looked at the most pressing questions facing the country today," he told the press outside the president's private residence. "As you know, we have made commitments to the international community that we have to keep."

This Portuguese-speaking West-African nation is hoping for more than $200 million from the international community to rebuild an infrastructure and economy devastated by years of fighting and neglect.

A round-table meeting with foreign donors, originally planned for October, is now tentatively scheduled for November in Lisbon on condition that Guinea-Bissau's rulers prove they can work together toward political stability.

Guinea-Bissau, the world's sixth-poorest country according to the UN Human Development Index, is still recovering from a 1998-99 coup that chased Vieira from power after almost 20 years at the helm. It is also facing a massive cholera epidemic that has claimed over 300 lives since June and disgruntled civil servants who have not been paid in four months.

In addition to his prediction that political cohabitation would run smoothly, Gomes Junior also promised to pay off the salary arrears within the next week.

However, there were continued signs of friction between the country's two most powerful politicians.

At the start of yesterday's meeting, a tense encounter between their respective security forces resulted in the soldiers outside Vieira's house expelling Gomes Junior's police entourage from the vicinity.

Tension flared between the two in April this year, with the prime minister publicly refusing to provide protection for the former head of state after his return to Bissau from six years in exile.

Gomes Junior leads the government of the ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which fissured earlier this year when some of its senior figures rallied behind Vieira’s bid for the presidency, rather than support the official PAIGC candidate.

Following Vieira's victory with 52% of the votes in the 24 July presidential election, Gomes Junior cried foul, leaving many to worry that cohabitation would be impossible.

But international pressure on Gomes Junior, whose PAIGC party has been leading the country through a transitional phase initiated by a 2003 coup, caused him to tone down his language and accept an inauguration date of October 1.

In late September, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on the prime minister not to interfere with the democratic process, which he said was essential in establishing the conditions necessary to woo foreign donors.

The big day came and went without a hitch. But Vieira's failure to mention Gomes Junior in his inauguration speech was pointed. Moreover, he met with the head of the armed forces, the state prosecutor and the speaker of the national assembly before the prime minister, a decision that has also done little to inspire confidence in the cohabitation.

And with the splintering of Gomes's PAIGC following the defection of a third of its elected members, the country's political stability is not yet assured.

[ENDS]