How could Brazil help Guinea-Bissau?
Murder, unlawful arrests and censure mark the lead up to the country's first post-coup elections
Brazil and the former Brazilian foreign minister, Antônio Aguiar Patriota, may play a decisive role in the first elections in Guinea-Bissau since the April 2012 coup. Patriota arrived this week in the capital, Bissau, as president of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, where he will hold talks with representatives of the government and the Armed Forces.
Conectas, Liga Guineense de Direitos Humanos (Guinea-Bissau Human Rights League) and Casa dos Direitos de Guiné (Guinea-Bissau Human Rights House) have asked the UN representative to include on the agenda meetings with civil society representatives to discuss the human rights situation in the country. “Since the coup, the situation has deteriorated, with murders, beatings and unlawful arrests,” reads the document sent to Patriota, which also contains a list of concrete recommendations.
The climate of tension has arisen in a context in which the Parliament is analyzing the adoption of an amnesty law while it also investigates the death of the former president João Bernardo Vieira, who was shot and dismembered in March 2009, three years before the Transport and Telecommunications Minister, Orlando Viegas, was assaulted in his home.
The delays in the voter registration process and the shortage of electoral kits have meant the election, originally scheduled for November, has already been postponed. Local organizations are now certain that the ballot, which is currently planned for March 16, will be pushed back once again.
The organizations are also asking for “more engagement from the Brazilian government, in particular to support the election process, like in previous elections, when Brazil provided significant support to the National Election Commission”.
