Troops Kill President of Guinea-Bissau After Bomb Kills His Rival

BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau, March 2 -- Soldiers assassinated the president of Guinea-Bissau in his palace Monday hours after a bomb blast killed his rival, but the military insisted that no coup was taking place in the West African nation.

A military statement broadcast on state radio attributed President Joao Bernardo Vieira's death to an "isolated" group of unidentified soldiers whom the armed forces said they were hunting down.

The capital, Bissau, was calm but tense following the pre-dawn gunfight at the palace, which erupted hours after armed forces chief of staff Gen. Batiste Tagmé na Waié -- a longtime rival of the president -- was killed when a bomb detonated at his headquarters.

The former Portuguese colony has suffered multiple coups and attempted coups since 1980, when Vieira himself first took power in one. The United Nations says the impoverished nation on the Atlantic coast of Africa has recently become a key transit point for cocaine smuggled from Latin America to Europe.

After an emergency cabinet meeting Monday, military spokesman Zamora Induta said that senior military officers had told government officials, "This was not a coup d'etat."

"We reaffirmed our intention to respect the democratically elected power and the constitution of the republic," Induta said. "The people who killed President Vieira have not been arrested, but we are pursuing them. They are an isolated group. The situation is under control."

The constitution calls for parliament speaker Raimundo Pereira to succeed the president in the event of his death.

Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr. said the military deserved praise for not going through with a coup. Troops "showed their patriotism by not seizing power," he said, adding that both Vieira and Waié will receive state funerals in the coming days.

Vieira had ruled Guinea-Bissau for 23 of the past 29 years. He came to power in the 1980 coup but was forced out 19 years later at the start of the country's civil war. He later returned from exile in Portugal to run successfully in the country's 2005 presidential election.

The armed forces' statement dismissed allegations that the military had killed Vieira in retaliation for Waié's assassination late Sunday. The two men were considered staunch political and ethnic rivals, and both had survived recent assassination attempts.

Vieira, from the minority Papel ethnic group, once blamed majority ethnic Balanta officers for attempting a coup against him, condemning several to death and others to long prison sentences.

Among them was Waié, who in the late 1980s was dropped off on a deserted island off Guinea-Bissau, according to his chief of staff, Lt. Col. Bwam Namtcho. Waié was left there for years before he was officially pardoned by Vieira and allowed to return.

Namtcho said the bomb that killed Waié had been hidden underneath the staircase leading to his office.

Hours later, volleys of automatic gunfire rang out for at least two hours before dawn in Bissau, and residents said soldiers converged on Vieira's palace.

The Portuguese news agency Lusa reported that troops attacked the palace with rockets and rifles.

In November, Vieira's residence was attacked by soldiers with automatic weapons who killed at least one of his guards. The president complained later that the army never intervened, leaving his presidential guard to fight off the attackers.

In January, Waié received a summons from the president's office, Namtcho said. But when Waié stepped outside to get into his car, unidentified gunmen opened fire. Waié narrowly escaped, and Namtcho says he assumed the attack had been ordered by the president.

Luis Sanca, security adviser to Gomes, the prime minister, confirmed that the president had died but gave no details.