Guinea-Bissau
More critique against Guinea-Bissau President

afrol News, 15 October - Civil society groups join the opposition in demanding political reconciliation and a possibility to change the President. In a manifest released today, civil society unites in pleading for anticipated elections to bring stability and progress to the country.

The so-called Movement of Civil Society for Democracy, Peace and Development unites forceful fragments of the Bissauan society, including trade unions, non-governmental organisations and religious societies. Today, they protest the lack of progress in Guinea-Bissau.

The movement today delivered a protest manifest directed at President Kumba Yala to the presidency. The document outlines two possibilities to step out of the malicious circle the country has been in since the 1998/99 civil war, and which the groups blame on President Yala's "constant atrocities against the Constitution.". 

One solution was the establishment of a government of national unity, constituted by all the political forces of the country. Guinea-Bissau has been led by weak and constantly changing governments over the last years as the President has insisted on naming Prime Ministers that do not have a majority in Parliament. 

If the President not was willing to share power with a national unity government, then he should agree to the holding of anticipated legislative and presidential elections, which the civil society groups favoured. President Yala's term however ends in January 2004. 

The groups threatened with the organisation of protests and strikes if President Yala would not consider the manifest they had presented. In any case, the groups demanded the President to start respecting "basic law principles, resituate legality, and the respect for the separation of constitutional powers." 

Today's manifest by civil society groups is in line with the growing opposition to President Yala in Guinea-Bissau. Earlier this month, the Bissauan opposition parties joined hands demanding the resignation of the President. The reason given was the alleged interference with the independent judiciary his "encouragement of tribalism to destabilise the country."

The main political parties, including the Guinea-Bissau Resistance Party and the African Party for Independence in Guinea, jointly said President Yala was "the principal obstacle" to the small country's "peace and development." Therefore, the President should step down. 

In September, church bishops had called for national reconciliation saying the country was facing hard times due to lack of government action, frequent leadership changes and a succession of ministers and judges, failure to draft a new constitution approved by the national assembly, and human rights violations, according to UN agency reports.

Also the UN, which has been monitoring Guinea-Bissau since the civil war, has become more critical towards President Yala lately. In July, the UN Security Council urgently called on President Yala to "commit himself" to reform. This included a "full respect for national reconciliation, good governance and the implementation of the programme for demobilisation, reintegration and reinsertion of former combatants," and to "close monitoring of the management of public finances."

Sources: Based on press reports, UN sources and afrol archives

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