Guinea-Bissau lifts arrest warrant for ex-PM
By Alberto Dabo
BISSAU, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau's government has lifted an arrest warrant against a former prime minister who accused the country's president of ordering the murder of an ex-navy chief, a senior U.N. official said on Saturday. Carlos Gomes Junior, who was dismissed as prime minister by President Joao Bernardo Vieira in 2005, had sought refuge more than two weeks ago in the U.N. building in Bissau after evading police officers.
The Interior Ministry had issued an order for the detention of Gomes Junior, leader of the former ruling PAIGC party, after he accused Vieira of being behind the killing earlier this month of ex-navy chief of staff Mohamed Lamine Sanha.
"The government has decided today, January 27, to lift the arrest warrant for Carlos Gomes Junior," Shola Omoredjie, special representative for the U.N. secretary-general in Guinea, told a news conference.
Vieira's government would guarantee the security of Gomes Junior and his family and would even provide him with special protection if he wished, Omoredjie said. He did not provide an explanation for why the warrant had been dropped.
The shooting of the ex-navy commander, a close ally of a former army chief who overthrew Vieira's previous government in a 1998-99 civil war, triggered violent protests in Bissau in which one demonstrator was killed by police.
The incident raised tensions in the small West African country, which has been rocked by a series of coups and uprisings since independence from Portugal in 1974.
"The government hopes Mr. Gomes Junior will cooperate with the ministry and the public prosecutor in its inquiry," said the U.N. official.
"It is important now for the whole country to concentrate on reconciliation, peace and development," he said.
Justice Minister Namono Dias said, however, the document cancelling the arrest warrant would not be signed until Monday by the interior minister.
PAIGC Vice-President Satu Camara said the ex-prime minister would not leave the United Nations' headquarters, where he sought refuge on Jan. 10, until the document was signed.
