US stops arms aid to G-Bissau
2003-09-18 10:34
Washington - The United States said on Wednesday it had suspended almost all of the modest amount of military assistance it provides to Guinea-Bissau following the government takeover at the weekend by the military.
However, the State Department, which announced the aid suspension, pointedly refused to describe the toppling of president Kumba Yala, who has now agreed to step down, as a "coup d'etat.
Nor did it specifically condemn the events, saying only that Washington would back efforts by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) to mediate the country's return to civilian rule.
"I don't think we're in a position yet to make a judgment," State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher told reporters when asked if the United States considered Sunday's events a "coup."
Ecowas "has got a delegation visiting Bissau," he said.
"They are working with all the parties to ensure a peaceful and democratic outcome to the ongoing events and we support and encourage those efforts," Boucher said.
Elected but unpopular
Ecowas said earlier that Yala, the elected but widely unpopular president, had voluntarily agreed to resign and that the military leaders who ousted him had pledged to hand over power to a broad-based civilian transition government.
Under US law, Washington must suspend all non-humanitarian assistance to countries in which an elected government is toppled by undemocratic means.
Guinea-Bissau receives very little US assistance but does participate in a programme in which members of its military travel to the United States for military training.
Despite not having determined the facts, Boucher said the United States had suspended $72 000 of the $77 000 it had set aside to train military Guinea-Bissau military officers.
The suspended money had been intended to pay for the travel and education of two officers who had been due to begin studies in the United States next month, Boucher said.
Yala's ejection, while condemned as a coup by many outside the country, was welcomed by many of Guinea-Bissau's 1.5 million inhabitants, who said they were fed up with the country's economic and political paralysis.