South African mission discreetly helping Sao Tome talks

SAO TOME, July 23 (AFP) - A South African delegation has quietly arrived in Sao Tome to help mediators negotiating with the new junta here in the wake of last week's coup in the west African island state, diplomats said Wednesday.

The eight-member team has been asked to help resolve issues raised by a section of the coup-makers -- former members of the feared Buffalo Battalion who fought as mercenaries against South Africa's former apartheid regime -- who have been ostracized here since returning home.

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The coup leaders, headed by Major Fernando Pereira, had asked for a South African delegation to take part directly in talks between the junta and a 30-strong international mediation team.

But it was agreed that the South African mission would discuss the issues of the former Battalion 32, nicknamed the Buffalo Battalion because of its insignia, on the sidelines of the negotiations, diplomats said.

The head of the mission, South African Ambassador to Libreville Samuel Monaisa Moutghetit, was careful to note that the delegates are here in support of African Union (AU) efforts to resolve the crisis in the former Portuguese colony.

Portuguese-speaking countries have taken the lead in the negotiations, and Mozambique has just taken over the rotating presidency of the nascent AU from South Africa, the body's first president.

"We are here to to give backing to the African Union ... and provide technical support to the Mozambican ambassador to Luanda (Gonacalves Saenga)," Moutghetit told AFP.

The negotiations were reportedly close to an agreement on Wednesday that will pave the way for the return of ousted Sao Tome president Fradique de Menezes.

Moutghetit would not elaborate on the role of the South African mission, which also includes officials from the president's office and the foreign and defense ministries, before meeting with Saenga.

The former mercenaries -- who went to South Africa after mounting a failed bid to oust Sao Tome's then president Manuel Pinto da Costa in 1988 -- have demanded for years to be reintegrated into Sao Tome society.

They also want the repatriation of the bodies of their fallen Buffalo Battalion comrades.

Three are represented in the talks, including Arlesio Costa, who heads a political party, the Democratic Christian Front (FDC), which has no representation in parliament.

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