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| Sao Tome junta to name new regime as mediators scurry to restore ousted one
SAO TOME, July 18 (AFP) - Sao Tome and Principe's new military rulers were due Friday to name a provisional government two days after staging a coup, as international mediators scurried to end the crisis and restore deposed leader Fradique de Menezes to power. The leader of the coup, Major Fernando Pereira, said late Thursday on national television that he would announce the tiny island nation's future regime on Friday. BizVantage – Beyond the news: when knowing counts. And in a radio announcement, the "junta of national salvation" set up the day after the coup, called the heads of Sao Tome's different government ministries for a meeting with the new military rulers, to discuss getting the administration back up and running. Meanwhile, international mediators accelerated their efforts to try to find a peaceful way out of the crisis. On Thursday, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said at a summit meeting in the central Portuguese town of Coimbra of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Nations (CPLP) that Angola would lead a team sent by the CPLP to Sao Tome to hold talks in a bit to end the standoff. Pereira hinted in his televised address at a possible return to power of Fradique de Menezes, the businessman elected president of the west African archipelago of 140,000 inhabitants in July 2001, who was out of the country when the putschists launched their coup on Wednesday. But, said the coup leader, there was no question of restoring the ousted government to power, most of whom had been detained at the start of the coup and were still being held by the putschists. There were "still some issues that have to be discussed" concerning de Menezes returning to power, said Pereira, but the deposed government, which he described as "incompetent and corrupt", would have to remain on the sidelines. Angola announced Friday that General Helder Vieira Dias, a key aide to President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, would lead Luanda's team of mediators, but a high-ranking Angolan government official has said, on condition of anonymity, that Luanda was "only part of the CPLP mission" and "not leading it. " Vieira Dias, who is better known as Kopelipa, was part of a negotiating team sent by Angola to Sao Tome in 1995, the last time the tiny island state was hit by a putsch. That crisis was resolved, thanks to Angolan mediation, with the putschists who had toppled then president Miguel Trovoada, agreeing to return to barracks in exchange for an amnesty. Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Joachim Chissano of Mozambique, who heads the African Union (AU) met Friday in Abuja with de Menezes, where the deposed Sao Tomean leader had been stranded since the coup. There have been reports in Sao Tome and in Nigeria that Nigerian or AU-mandated troops might be sent to help de Menezes win back power from the military putschists. But the Sao Tome leader has insisted that efforts to restore his rule will initially focus on negotiation and diplomatic pressure, and his media adviser, Guillaume Neto, told AFP that Friday's talks would not deal with possible military action "at all" and that the focus of efforts would continue to be diplomatic. The rebels had closed Sao Tome's airport at the start of the coup, reopening it on a restricted basis late Thursday. Among the specially authorised flights allowed to land Friday in Sao Tome was a Portuguese plane, which had flown in to pick up tourists trapped in the country after the coup. Most of the 14 members of Sao Tome's cabinet who were detained by the putschists at the start of the coup were still in captivity, an AFP correspondent said Friday. Maria das Neves, the prime minister, was among those detained at the start of the coup but she was taken to hospital after suffering a mild heart attack following a gunfight at her home when the putschists came to arrest her. mcl/kdz/tm SaoTome-coup
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