AFRICA/SAO TOME: Coup leaders hand power back to civilian president

Coup Leaders Hand Power Back to Civilian President
 
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks 

July 23, 2003 
Posted to the web July 23, 2003 

Abidjan 

The military junta which seized power in the potentially oil-rich island 
state of Sao Tome and Principe last week, signed an agreement with 
international mediators on Wednesday to allow the reinstatement of the 
elected government of President Fradique de Menezes, news agencies with local 
correspondents reported.

Menezes, who was visiting Nigeria at the time of the 16 July coup, flew back 
to the twin-island state, 240 km west of Gabon on Wednesday night, 
accompanied by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, they added.

 
The French news agency AFP said the military junta, led by Major Fernando 
Pereira, had agreed to the return and reinstatement of Menezes in return for 
an amnesty for the coup leaders and their civilian collaborators and the 
formation of a new government.

Reuters quoted a diplomat as saying fresh elections would be held with the 
presence of international observers.

The deal was negotiated by diplomats from Portugal, Brazil, the United States 
and several African countries. The team was led by Rodolphe Adada, the 
foreign minister of Congo-Brazzaville.

Many of those involved in the Sao Tome coup were former members of the 
Buffalo Batallion, a mercenary unit created by the Apartheid government in 
South Africa in the 1970s to fight in Namibia and Angola. It was disbanded in 
1993.

A South African delegation led by Kingley Mambolo, deputy director of the 
Africa department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs flew to Sao Tome on 
Tuesday to join the 30-strong team of international mediators. RDP, the 
Portuguese state radio station said the South Africans had been sent to help 
determine the future of the former Buffalo Batallion members who had taken 
part in the coup.

Menezes, who was elected in 2001, left Nigeria for the Gabonese capital 
Libreville earlier this week. There he held talks with President Omar Bongo 
on Tuesday and some of the international mediators who negotiated a deal to 
end the military uprising in Sao Tome. Obasanjo's plane stopped in Libreville 
to take him home.

The coup leaders said they had seized power in frustration at the persistence 
of grinding poverty among Sao Tome's 170,000 inhabitants despite the imminent 
arrival of an oil boom in the island state. They also complained about the 
rapid enrichment of senior government officials whom they accused of 
corruption.

Seismic surveys indicate that the offshore waters of Sao Tome, which the 
country has agreed to develop in partnership with Nigeria, contain rich oil 
reserves.

The former Portuguese colony has until now eked out a living from cocoa 
exports. But it should receive a first windfall from oil next year when it 
banks about US$100 million of front end signature bonuses for the award of 
nine offshore blocks to foreign oil companies. This windfall payment will be 
more than twice the islands' annual budget.

Although Sao Tome has a per capita income of just $280 at present, it has 
high hopes of becoming one of Africa's leading oil exporters over the next 
decade. Seismic data gathered so far indicates the presence of between four 
and 11 billion barrels of oil reserves in water depths 1,500 to 2,500 metres. 
New technology developed in recent years has made it commercially viable to 
extract oil in such challenging conditions.

The mountainous and heavily forested islands, which gained independence from 
Portugal in 1975, suffered one previous short-lived military takeover in 
1995. The leaders of that coup handed power back to the country's elected 
leaders a week later following mediation by Angola.


Source: © 2003 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights 
reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media