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Gambia News : Bissau coup bid suspect flees to Gambia: police

Marine Sergeant Alexandre Tchama Yala, a nephew of opposition leader Koumba Yala whose party rejected its defeat in parliamentary elections this month, is suspected of plotting the November 23 attack on President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira's home.

Assailants peppered the residence in the crumbling capital Bissau with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, killing one guard and wounding another.

Authorities in the former Portuguese colony, which has a history of coups and mutinies since its independence in 1974, have detained at least seven soldiers over the attack.

But the raid failed to unseat veteran leader Vieira, who seized power in a military coup in 1980, was ousted in 1999 after a brief civil war and was voted back to office in 2005.

"Alexandre Tchama Yala has taken refuge in Gambia," said a police officer, who declined to be named.

U.N. anti-narcotics officials say well-armed Latin American drug gangs have turned this part of West Africa into a "Coke Coast" by using remote islands and airstrips to trans-ship cocaine on its way for sale on the streets of Europe.

"The soldiers involved in the attempted coup are being questioned by a commission of two magistrates, a civil society representative and civil servants," the police officer said.

An associate of Tchama Yala, former Navy chief Admiral Jose America Bubo Na Tchuto, has lived under house arrest in Gambia since he fled there in August after being accused of plotting an earlier coup against Vieira.

The officer and other police officials said they suspected Tchama Yala had joined Bubo, a fellow member of Guinea-Bissau's Balante ethnic group, many of whom have opposed Vieira since an alleged Balante military plot against him was bloodily put down in 1986.

ETHNIC RIVALRY

Koumba Yala appointed Balantes to top armed forces positions afer his election as president in 2000, and the tribe retained key military posts even after a bloodless coup ousted him in 2003. This has lent influence to his Social Renewal Party (PRS).

But the party received a drubbing in parliamentary elections on November 16, winning just 28 seats in the 100-seat National Assembly compared with 67 for the former ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC).

Koumba Yala rejected the results as flawed. Hours later, armed supporters protected him from arrest by police who wanted to question him over his public accusations that Vieira was involved in drug trafficking.

Guinea-Bissau's police lack even basic equipment like cars, fuel and guns to fight well-resourced drug gangs who use speed boats and small planes to ferry their valuable cargoes.

But the armed forces are top-heavy with officers -- many past retirement age but refusing to leave for fear of poverty. Military experts say reform is a must if the country is to break with its coup-prone past.

"Until state authority is restored and the army is reduced in size ... these bloody episodes will continue in Guinea-Bissau," said Bissau resident Elisa Souares.