Coup in Guinea-Bissau Frustrated: President

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, June 12, 2002

Coup in Guinea-Bissau Frustrated: President

Guinea-Bissau's President Kumba Yalla said on Tuesday a coup attempt was frustrated in May, according to Portuguese news agency Lusa.

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Guinea-Bissau's President Kumba Yalla said on Tuesday a coup attempt was frustrated in May, according to Portuguese news agency Lusa.

President Kumba Yalla, who was elected president in January 2000, said that about two dozen coup plotters trained in neighboring Gambia had been arrested in an attempt to oust his government on May 22, the report said.

The coup attempt was aimed at "overthrowing the democratically elected government in Guinea-Bissau", Yalla said.

Yalla gave no details about Gambia's alleged involvement in coup attempts.

An alleged coup plotter, reserve army officer Fode Conte, said in a taped confession that he feared that he and fellow members ofthe Mandingo ethnic group would be purged from the army.

Conte said on the tape played before onlookers that the plotters planned to kill Yalla and other senior military officers from the rival Balanta ethnic group, the report said.

Yalla said he would grant amnesties to those arrested in the alleged May plot as well those detained for a coup attempt in December 2001.

Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony of 1.3 million people,has been rocked by repeated unrest since an army mutiny in 1998.

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