President holds emergency talks to save government

Guinea-Bissau’s President Kumba Yala has held crisis talks with disgruntled military chiefs and key government ministers in an apparent attempt to save his government from collapse, according to media reports from the former Portuguese colony reaching nearby Gambia. No official explanation was given for the series of meetings on Wednesday, but the Bissau daily "Correio da Guiné-Bissau" reported that senior officers had earlier called for the government's resignation because it owned the army six months of pay arrears. The Portuguese news agency Lusa said the army had also been upset by the dismissal of Defense Minister Marcelino Lopes Cabral on April 21 and his subsequent arrest. Unusually, the military top brass stayed away from the swearing in ceremony of Filomena Tipote, his successor. Correio de Guine-Bissau said the military chief of staff, General Veríssimo Correia Seabra, had met recently met with several senior officers who protested against the government's "failure to keep promises" on back pay and demanded the cabinet's resignation. It said Seabra had appealed for "calm" and cautioned that any military "reaction could trigger much speculation". Lusa said Yala's encounter with military chiefs followed other meetings with Prime Minister Mário Pires and Tipote, the newly appointed Defense Minister. Guinea-Bissau has been in the throes of a political and economic crisis for several months. Yala, who came to power in 2000, disolved parliament in November last year, accusing its members of sabotage. Elections for a new legislature, due on 20 April, were postponed.