Guinea-Bissau seeks aid to fight organised crime

BISSAU, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Short of patrol ships, planes, radios and even a prison, Guinea-Bissau is in danger of falling under the control of international organised crime gangs trafficking drugs, arms and migrants, security experts and diplomats say. The government of this tiny, coup-prone West African state, one of the poorest and most unstable in the world, is urgently seeking millions of dollars of foreign aid to modernise its army and police to tackle this security threat.

International donors, who will meet on Nov. 7-8 in Geneva to consider the aid request, want guarantees that the restless armed forces can be reshaped to keep the peace and not destroy it. The military has staged a rash of coups and mutinies and fought a brief civil war since Portugal granted the territory independence in 1974. "This is such a small and poor country that it can become a centre for organised crime. It can be bought," a foreign diplomat, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
Diplomats say recent interceptions of drugs, arms and illegal migrants point to Guinea-Bissau becoming a defenceless target of trans-national crime.

The United Nations, which maintains a peace-building mission in Guinea-Bissau, is supporting the government's request for financing for a $170 million security reform programme. This proposes reducing and modernising the army, and retraining the police and judiciary. The plan forms part of a $400 million overall aid request intended to haul the country's 1.4 million people out of abject poverty. Most eke out a living from fishing and farming and cashew nuts are the main export crop.
The crumbling capital Bissau is plagued by almost permanent power outages, most roads become pot-holed quagmires a few dozen kilometres outside the city and civil servants have not been paid for three months. "Guinea-Bissau wants to be a state of law and order," Justice Minister Namuano Dias Gomes told Reuters on Wednesday. "Unfortunately, the only thing our armed forces know about is waging war ... in times of peace," he added.

DRUG TRANSIT ROUTE
Diplomats say President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira, who returned to power through elections last year, appears to support the reforms, although it remains to be seen whether his fractious military chiefs will accept them. Vieira, who ruled the country for nearly two decades after seizing power in a 1980 military coup, was himself ousted by rebellious officers in 1999.
The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime says international drug cartels have honed in on Guinea-Bissau -- with its 5,000 km (3,000 miles) of jagged coastline, river inlets, mangrove creeks and remote islands -- as an ideal transit route to ship narcotics from Latin America to Europe.

Lack of training and resources has resulted in the almost total absence of any policing of the national territory and its borders, the U.N. agency says. The national headquarters of the judicial police looks more like a junk yard than a police station. "They have no radios, no vehicles and no laboratories ... We don't even have a prison," Justice Minister Gomes said. "If international criminals have discovered Guinea-Bissau, it is because they have discovered its weaknesses," he said. Gomes said the government was seeking financing for a $9 million project to build a 600-cell prison and also wanted funding for a modern identity card system.

25 Oct 2006 16:20:56 GMT
Source: Reuters