Coup could ruin financially
2003-07-18 19:01
Coimbra, Portugal - The military junta which staged a coup in Sao Tome and Principe should lay down arms before its putsch leads the impoverished west African island state to financial ruin, Sao Tome's foreign minister said here on Friday.
Mateus Meira Rita, who was in Portugal for the annual meeting of foreign ministers of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Nations (CPLP) when the coup took place on Wednesday, was reacting to a decision by the World Bank to suspend aid to Sao Tome following the coup.
"When the World Bank says this, all other institutions are sure to follow," he told reporters on the second and last day of the meeting being held in this central Portuguese town.
The minister said he expected the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, two other major sources of foreign aid, to follow suit soon and cut their flow of funds to the country "as long as there is no legitimate government" in the island state.
"I appeal for the return to constitutional order. The military junta has to understand that this adventure does not have a leg to stand on," he said.
"The country does not have resources. Sao Tome and Principe is a country which depends on foreign aid," he added.
When asked if the coup would lead to the financial collapse of the country, the minister said: "I think so."
World Bank vice president Calisto Madavo said Thursday the institution would suspend all aid to Sao Tome because the agency does not support states or governments which are not recognized by the international community.
Troops seized control of the tiny west African archipelago on Wednesday while President Fradique de Menezes was in Nigeria to attend a summit of leading Africans and African-Americans.
Sao Tome and Principe, mired in poverty since independence from Portugal in 1975, sits atop a potential oil bonanza estimated at four billion barrels of crude. But for now, the average annual income in the twin-island state is $280 and the country is heavily dependent on foreign aid.
The military junta has justified the coup on the grounds that government corruption is largely responsible for the widespread poverty in Sao Tome.
The CPLP agreed on Thursday to send a mission to Sao Tome and Principe as part of a bid to mediate between the junta and the ousted government, most of whose members were still in the hands of the putschists.
Meira Rita said he was optimistic that the mission would help the military junta to "understand the consequences of their action."
He said the diplomatic mission, which has the backing of Sao Tome's ousted president, had been requested by the leaders of the junta.
Angolan Interior Minister Osvaldo Serra Van Dunem was scheduled to travel on Friday to Congo where he would co-ordinate the mission with representatives of the Community of Central African States who are meeting in the country.
In comments made to the Lusa news agency in Angola on Friday Serra Van Dunem ruled out the deployment of a military force to restore Sao Tome's ousted government.
"I think these problems can not be solved through the use of force," he said.
Portuguese Foreign Minister Antonio Martins da Cruz said Friday he was unsure when the diplomatic mission would arrive in Sao Tome.
"It will first be necessary to establish contacts with the authorities currently in Sao Tome," he said.