An investigation will be carried out by justice to determine under what circumstances have died the people suspected of being those responsible for the failed reversal
Mo12345lemonde with AFP
The chief of staff of the army of Sao Tomé-et-Principe announced Sunday November 27 the death of four people who had been arrested after the attempted coup d’etat and that The power claims to have thwarted on the night of Thursday to Friday.
“Four human lives have been lost,” said Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Olinto Package, quoted by the government news agency STP-Press.
Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada had announced that he had thwarted an attempted coup in this small Lusophone archipelago, considered as a model of parliamentary democracy in Africa on Friday.
A four-men commando was captured Friday after six hours of army headquarters, he explained. “Four citizens” with “12 army soldiers”, tried to occupy military facilities, said the chief of staff.
Concerning the four dead, three of them who had been “captured and neutralized”, died of their “injuries”, said Mr. Pack on Sunday, without giving more details on the circumstances of these deaths that remain Confused.
The fourth death, Arlecio Costa, is a former Santomean mercenary of the South African group “Buffalo battalion”, dismantled in 1993 by Pretoria, who was accused on Friday by Mr. Trovoada of being one of the sponsors .
There too, the circumstances of his death remain vague: his arrest had been announced by the authorities on Friday and, Sunday, Mr. Pachete explained that he died after “jumped from a vehicle”, without giving More details.
In this context, a judicial source contacted by AFP indicated on condition of anonymity the opening of two surveys: the first concerning the attack on the army’s HQ, the second on facts of “murder “and” torture “against alleged perpetrators of the coup attempt.
A judicial source could not also say whether Mr. Costa had been arrested or not in the army HQ with the other three people.
UN information mission
In February 2009, then chief of a small opposition party, Mr. Costa had already been arrested and accused of being the leader of an attempted coup 12 days before.
At the end of a Council of Ministers held on Sunday, the government “firmly condemned” what it describes as “violent attempt to subversion of constitutional order”, while ensuring that ” All surveys will be carried out to determine the causes and circumstances of deaths “, in addition to the investigations to determine the responsibilities of the coup attempt.
The government has notably urged hospital services to “properly preserve the bodies” of the victims, adding that an “international team”, including an medical examiner, must join the archipelago to support the investigators’ teams.
The president of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECEAC), Gilberto da Piedade Verissimo, and Abdou Abarry, head of the UN office for Central Africa, carried out an “mission of information “This weekend in the archipelago, the two organizations announced in a joint press release.
Several other people, including ex-Numéro 1 of Parliament, Delfim Nevès, had been arrested on Friday after being denounced by the commando responsible for the assault on the army’s HQ, said Mr. Trovoada after the events.
m. Nevès was the president of the outgoing National Assembly and lost this function on November 11 during the installation of the new chamber from the legislative elections of September 25, won by absolute majority by the center of the center of Mr. Trovoada, Independent democratic action (ADI).
“Some do not accept the will of the ballot boxes,” said the latter.
Following several coup attempts, the last in 2003 and 2009, the parliamentary regime asserted itself in this poor archipelago, independent of Portugal since 1975, which has allowed several alternations between two parties: The Liberation Movement of Sao Tomé-et-Principe-Parti Social-Democrat (MLSTP-PSD, Center-Gauche) and the Adi of M. Trovoada.