GUINEA-BISSAU: AMBASSADOR DISCUSSES ASSASSINATIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 DAKAR 000313

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/12/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL PU SG XY
SUBJECT: GUINEA-BISSAU: AMBASSADOR DISCUSSES ASSASSINATIONS
WITH FORMER FIRST LADY

Classified By: AMBASSADOR MARCIA BERNICAT FOR REASONS 1.5 B/D


1. (C) Summary: On March 12, Ambassador and Emboffs met in
Dakar with Isabelle Vieira, the widow of former Bissau-Guinea
President Joao Bernardo Vieira, and close family friend,
Pierre Goudiaby Atepa, an adviser to the Senegalese
President. Atepa and Mrs. Vieira asked for the United States
to investigate the assassinations in Guinea-Bissau, saying
that any effort conducted by Bissau-Guinean entities would
not be credible. Atepa claimed that one of Vieira's killers
was a member of the commission of inquiry set up to
investigate the murders. He accused the Prime Minister and
the leader of the military commission in command of the armed
forces of being involved or responsible for the
assassinations and he suggested former President Kumba Yala
and Portugal might be complicit as well. He said narcotics
trafficking and any efforts to reform the military, which is
currently dominated by the Balanta ethnic group, were motives
for the murders. The Ambassador assured Atepa and Mrs.
Vieira that the United States supports seeing a credible
accounting of what occurred and that it would be more
appropriate for the USG to participate in an African-led
international inquiry. See SEPTEL cable for more information
international community efforts and requirements to support
them. End summary.


2. (C) On March 12 Pierre, Pierre Goudiaby Atepa, architect,
informal advisor to President Wade and close friend of the
Vieira family contacted the Ambassador to say he had urgent
information to pass regarding the assassinations of President
Vieira and former Bissau-Guinean Armed Forces Chief of Staff
General Batista Tagme Na Wai, and that former First Lady
Isabel Vieira wanted to meet with the Americans. Ambassador,
PolCouns Mosby and DATT Madden met with Mrs. Vieira and Atepa
for two hours discussing the assassinations and the family's
suspicions about who is responsible.

Guinea-Bissau Investigative Commission Not Credible
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3. (C) Atepa informed us that President Abdoulaye Wade had
given him responsibility for coordinating matters on
Guinea-Bissau (and Atepa,s neighboring Senegalese region of
the Casamance),including providing him with a plane to bring
Vieira's family to Dakar. He said that the Senegalese, like
Mrs. Vieira, were convinced that the recently established
Bissau-Guinean commission of inquiry into the killings would
be ineffective because of a basic lack of investigative
capacity. He noted that none of the political assassinations
in Guinea-Bissau's history had ever been solved or resulted
in a conviction based on similar commission efforts. Atepa
added that the commission also would be hamstrung by the
inclusion of a military nurse named Chiam, who is called
"Doctor" and is alleged to have mutilated President Vieira
with a machete among the military,s representatives.

Request for U.S. to Conduct Investigation
--------------


4. (C) Atepa asked in the name of the family for the United
States to conduct the investigation to ensure its
credibility. He commented that Senegal could not get
directly involved because of the risk that Guinea-Bissau
could retaliate by provoking trouble in the Casamance. The
Ambassador responded by praising the actions taking by
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to date in
the aftermath of the assassinations. She told Atepa that it
would not be appropriate for the United States to act
unilaterally, but that the USG was supportive of the idea of
an internationally-led international commission of inquiry,
especially one organized by ECOWAS. The Ambassador assured
him that the United States also wanted to see a credible
accounting of what had occurred and why, noting that the
Legal Attache and his deputy were already in Bissau to offer
preliminary assistance to the investigation.


5. (C) Atepa granted the need for African leadership, but
expressed little confidence in ECOWAS (or the United
Nations),complaining bitterly that Vieira had requested
security assistance from both organizations as well as the
Community of Lusophone Speaking Countries (CPLP) without
success following the November 23 attempt on Viera,s life.
Atepa repeated a claim Emboffs have heard frequently in the
last week that several people were in hiding in Bissau and in
Dakar because they fear for their lives and urged the United
States to be actively involved in any investigative effort
for the sake of their safety as well as finding the killers.
Atepa informed us that he had removed the machete used to

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torture Vieira from the crime scene, brought it to Dakar and
turned it over to the Minister of Interior. He requested
that the FBI examine the evidence for fingerprints to prove
Chiam's involvement. EmbOffs noted that U.S. forensics
efforts would be aimed at developing a set of facts
surrounding the two killings that could aid the wider
investigation. Atepa urged the Ambassador to speak directly
with President Wade, who was aware of Emboffs, meeting with
Atepa, about the assassinations and made a call on the spot
to arrange a meeting (currently scheduled to occur at 1800
local time on Friday, March 13).

Accuses Prime Minister Gomes of Being Involved
-------------- -


6. (C) Atepa in the name of the family not/not the
Senegalese government accused Bissau-Guinean Prime Minister
Carlos Gomes Junior of being implicated in the
assassinations. He recounted the long, personal and
well-known animosity between Vieira and Gomes, describing
Gomes as a man who was &manufactured8 by Vieira and whose
personal wealth was in part due to Vieira's assistance.
Atepa claimed that Gomes appropriated property belonging to
the Vieira family following the 1998 civil war and Vieira's
departure into exile. According to Atepa and Mrs. Vieira, on
the night of the assassination of Na Wai, the Prime Minister
twice refused to attend a meeting convoked by the President
with the Minister of Defense and the service chiefs, citing
concerns about security. However, Atepa believes the real
reason Gomes refused to attend the meeting is that he knew
troops from Mansoa were already en route to execute the
President, ostensibly in retaliation for the death of Na Wai.
Atepa noted that after the assassinations, Gomes as well as
the rest of his cabinet never contacted or spoke with Mrs.
Vieira to offer their condolences or aid with funeral
arrangements, with the exception of Foreign Minister Adiato
Nandigna.

Accuses Captain Zamora Induta is the Mastermind
-------------- --


7. (C) Atepa said that he and the Vieira family believe that
Captain Zamora Induta, vice chief of staff of the
Bissau-Guinean Navy and seemingly self-appointed interim
leader of the military commission currently in command of the
armed forces, is the mastermind of these events. Atepa
suggested, however, that several other actors may be
involved. He noted that Gomes, accompanied by the Ministers
of Defense and Interior, traveled recently to the Gambia
without informing President Vieira, implying that Gomes did
so to meet with former Chief of Staff of the Bissau-Guinean
Navy, Admiral Bubo Na Tchute, who is known to have been
actively involved in narcotics trafficking and was accused by
Tagme Na Wai of having planned an attempted coup d'etat in
August 2008. Na Tchute is also suspected by many of having
been implicated in the failed attempt to assassinate Vieira
in November 2008. Atepa commented almost for effect, "It
seems to me that (former President) Kumba Yala is involved as
well. He indicated that Yala's former Minister of Interior
Ernesto Carvalho is resident in Dakar and allegedly in
regular communication with Yala in Morocco and various
individuals in Bissau, including narcotics traffickers.
Atepa completed his list of key suspects by including the
Government of Portugal, primarily given their apparent lack
of concern for the manner in which Induta (who was reportedly
trained in Portugal) took control of the military. Echoing
the opinions expressed by a number of senior Bissau-Guinean
government and military officials, Atepa said that, in
addition to the threat posed by steps to stem drug
trafficking, any effort to reform the armed forces would be
regarded as a threat to the military leadership and could
have provoked plotters to remove Vieira and Na Wai. Atepa
stated flatly, however, that neither leader had been actively
involved in drug trafficking (Note: According to several
sources, Na Wai was attempting to crack down on military
involvement in drug trafficking and had begun to embrace
security sector reform shortly before his assassination. End
Note.)

Zamora in Charge
--------------


8. (C) Induta by his own actions has at least indirectly
implicated himself in the assassinations. By his own
admission, he and his fellow second-tier officers deposed the
established military succession and hierarchy only hours
after the death of Nai Wai, claiming they did so because the
service chiefs "did not take the initiative." Induta also

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made an announcement shortly after Na Wai,s death that
President Vieira was responsible, a statement he later tried
to modify. Observers speculate that the Balanta (the
overwhelming majority of military members, ethnic group)
officers were unwilling to allow the non-Balanta Army chief
of staff to become interim chief, as prescribed. (Note:
Reportedly the Navy chief of staff is Balanta, but not
regarded as capable End Note.) Moreover, Induta seems to
have quickly established himself as the de facto armed forces
chief of staff and even apparently presented himself as such
initially. The Balanta officers have subsequently met and
confirmed Induta as their candidate to be the next armed
forces chief of staff. The speed with which Induta has
established his position suggests he took time to prepare the
way for his coup within the military.


9. (C) Atepa also illustrated Induta,s control by recounting
that the family met with the Prime Minister to negotiate
burial arrangements for Vieira. The family proposed three
options: 1) bury Vieira in or next to the mausoleum of
independence leader and national hero Amical Cabral; 2) bury
the remains abroad in Cape Verde, Belgium, France, or
Senegal; or 3) bury him in the Vieira house where he was
murdered, transforming it into a mausoleum. Atepa and Mrs.
Vieira said the Prime Minister told the family representative
to seek authorization from interim defense chief Zamora.
Zamora responded that all three options were out of the
question and the President would be buried in the municipal
cemetery "like everyone else." Atepa and Vieira,s widow
also claimed that the military tried to block one of the
former President,s daughters from making brief remarks at
the funeral, but that interim President Pereira overruled the
decision.

No Sense of Danger
--------------


10. (C) Shortly after the assassination of Na Wai, the
President held a meeting on March 1 with the Minister of
Defense and the service chiefs, as well as other senior
officers including Zamora Induta, during which he supposedly
asked for them to account for the security breach: "How is it
possible that someone put a bomb in staff headquarters
without any of you knowing?" The President held a second
meeting with the same group later that evening. Shortly
after the departure of the Minister of Defense from the
second meeting, the troops from Mansoa arrived. At that
time, several of Vieira's advisers and other staff were
present in the house, two of whom are receiving treatment in
Dakar for their wounds. According to Mrs. Vieira, neither
she nor President Vieira ever considered leaving the house
following the assassination of Na Wai, though several
confidants contacted him to raise concerns about his
security. When asked why, she and Atepa said that he did not
want to run because he had done nothing wrong. Mrs. Vieira
seemed particularly puzzled as to why the President would
have run given his supposed innocence.

COMMENT
--------------


11. (C) It is clear that Atepa and the Vieira family have an
agenda; they hope to enlist the United States in their quest
for answers surrounding the death of President Vieira and by
association that of Wa Nai. Nevertheless, much of what Atepa
and Mrs. Vieira said tracks closely with numerous
conversations that EmbOffs have had over the past week and
half, including with Bissau-Guinean cabinet and senior
government officials, as well as resident diplomats and
international organization staff. When asked by PolCouns if
he thought Prime Minister Gomes knew before hand that Vieira
was about to be assassinated, the Minister of Defense replied
"Yes," believing that was the reason Gomes chose not to
attend the meetings at the President's home. The Prime
Minister is also described as being close to Induta, who
campaigned with Gomes during last November,s legislative
elections. For his part, the Prime Minister told Ambassador
and EmbOffs that he did not go to the meeting because he felt
that it was foolish to meet with the military, given that
some of its members had just assassinated Na Wai, until the
situation could be clarified.


12. (C) Induta is not likely to be able to duplicate Na
Wai,s level of control of the military, primarily because of
his age and the fact he is not a combat veteran. Atepa
alleged that there are tensions between Induta and the
commander of the Mansoa battalion, Colonel Antonio Njai, who
has reportedly been nominated by the military to be the vice

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armed forces chief of staff. Instead, Induta, who has
skipped several ranks in his career, appears to have risen to
the top as a result of sheer ambition and because he is
better educated )- a rarity in the Bissau-Guinean military
-- than many of his rivals. Induta is more likely serving
more as a chairman of the board, than chief executive officer
at this point, suggesting further upheavals within the
military could be in the offing. Although none of Emboffs,
interlocutor's could provide any proof, most believe drug
traffickers are involved in the deaths of both leaders in
some way, whether in the form of logistical and technical
support (i.e., providing the bomb that killed Na Wai),or
more actively as architects of the assassinations.


13. (C) The case against Prime Minister Gomes is less
compelling. While his ties to Induta could infer his
involvement in some way, it is difficult to understand why
plotters would need to bring him into a conspiracy. It is
perfectly plausible that Gomes stayed away from the meeting
out of a general fear of instability in the aftermath of Na
Wai,s death, however, it is equally plausible that he
received a call from his friend Induta warning him to stay
away (and without further explanation). While constitutional
form has been followed regarding civilian rule, it does not
appear that the Interim President and Prime Minister remain
as unable as their predecessors to exercise command and
control over the armed forces. Also disturbing, discussions
with senior Bissau-Guinean figures also indicate that ethnic
tension is on the rise as a result of events that strongly
suggest the length to which the Balantas might go to retain
control of the military. According to the Minister of
Defense, the country is increasingly at risk for a potential
outbreak of ethnic violence. End comment.
BERNICAT