AP News, January 10th, 2007
The former prime minister of Guinea-Bissau sought asylum at the local U.N. office on Wednesday, three days after he accused the tiny West African nation's president of murder.
Guinea-Bissau's interior minister had issued an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr. earlier Wednesday. The arrest order followed allegations by Gomes that President Joao Bernardo Vieira was behind the assassination of an ex-military commander last week.
A dozen police officers surrounded Gomes' office Wednesday to apprehend him. But Gomes escaped through a back door and jumped into a car, then drove across town to the safety of the U.N. building.
U.N. officials in the country were not immediately available for comment.
A spokesman for Gomes said the arrest order was unconstitutional because the former prime minister had diplomatic immunity as a member of the national assembly.
"He's the president of a political party. His attempted detention is unacceptable," spokesman Oscar Barbosa said in a telephone interview.
On Monday, Gomes claimed in an interview with Lusa, the Portuguese national news agency, that Vieira was systematically ordering the killing of members of the military junta that overthrew him in 1999. After the coup, Vieira was exiled to Portugal for six years until 2005, when he returned and won the national election and ousted Gomes' government.
Two other junta commanders were murdered, including Gen. Ansoumane Mane in 2000 and Verissimo Correia Seabra in 2004. There has been no inquiry into their deaths. The murder last week of Mohamed Lamine Sanha, a 54-year-old former navy head and a leading member of the military junta, sparked violent protests in the capital.
One of the world's poorest countries, Guinea-Bissau has been plagued by coups since wresting independence from Portugal in 1973.
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Associated Press Writer Rukmini Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.
