Diaspora activists call for “serious and fair mediation” of Senegal and ECOWAS

Ua group of activists from the Single Front and the International Solidarity Network with Guinea-Bissau will today deliver a manifesto to the Senegal embassy in London, setting up a “serious and fair mediation” of the Guinean political crisis.

In missive, organizations accuse ECOWAS of responsibility for the “consolidation of a dictatorship led by a coup military command” and questioned Senegal’s indication to lead mediation, decided at the summit of the Heads of State and Government of the organization, held in July in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

The document, to which the Lusa agency had access, expresses “extreme indignation at Senegal’s inaction” as mediator of the current phase of the crisis and requires immediate action by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for the “return to constitutional and democratic order” in the country.

From the proposed measures, the signatories call for the “immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners”, the reopening of the seats of political parties and the lifting of restrictions imposed on parties, civil society organizations and the press.

If the obstacles to the return to constitutional normality persist, they require the application of “severe individual sanctions” from ECOWAS to those responsible.

The document, entitled “Manifesto à Mediação Senegalesa da CEDEAO para a Guinea-Bissau”, is subscribed by the Guinean platform Unique Front and the International Solidarity Network with Guinea-Bissau.

The latter, launched at the beginning of the month, is an international coalition of organizations, political leaders and allies from different countries, including the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the African Alliance of Revolutionary Parties (A-APRP), the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), the Peoples' Organization of West Africa (WAPO), the World Anti-Imperialist Platform (WAP), Pan-Africanism Today (PAT), or the Ghana Socialist Movement.

The disclosure of the manifesto takes place on the eve of a “Day of Action”, on Saturday, in which demonstrations are planned in Dakar, Praia, Lisbon, London, Baltimore and Luxembourg.

The power in Guinea-Bissau has been in the hands of a military junta since the coup d'état on November 26, 2005, the day before the publication of the results of legislative and presidential elections, which drove away the then-elect President, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, and approved a new Constitution that strengthens the powers of the head of state.

The opposition considered that this was a staged maneuver to allow Sissoco Emballo to return to power through new elections scheduled by the military on 6 December, already postponed without date.