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afrol.com, 1 December - Reports from Guinea-Bissau confirm that the fugitive coup leader, General Ansumane Mane was killed in battle yesterday. Portuguese and Bissau TV showed pictures of the dead body from Blon de Biombo, 75 km west of Bissau. The civilian Government is supposed to have won a major battle against the threat of a military takeover. An announcement of General Ansumane Mane's death was made on Thursday evening on state radio and television. Two other people were also killed in the clash, which occurred on Thursday on the Biombo Peninsula, a tranquil rice-growing zone west of the capital, Bissau. The area lies some 30 km outside Quinhamel, on the same peninsula, where followers of Mane had been captured earlier this week.
State television showed images of three bodies. However, international media claim the bullet-riddled bodies were not recognisable. President Kumba Yala told national radio Friday morning that the general had refused to surrender to the loyalist forces and that it was for that reason that he was shot and killed. There had been much uncertainty over Mane's fate in the past week. On 23 November, military sources said he had been detained, Portuguese radio reported. The authorities later said he had fled to Quinhamel, in the Biombo region, but there were rumours that he had been killed. I later became clear that only some of Mane's followers and his family had been arrested in Quinhamel, while the general continued to be at large. Government troops had mounted an extensive search in the archipelagos and islands that make up much of Guinea-Bissau. "Then the manhunt that had been going on since last week was stepped up in the area of Quinhamel, where it turns out he had been all this time," a Portuguese TV correspondent reporting from Bissau said, according to the BBC. Mane had headed a military junta that co-governed Guinea-Bissau after an 11-month mutiny that ousted President Kumba Yala's predecessor, Joao Bernardo Vieira, in May 1999. His relations with Yala, elected in February 2000, had been tense. On various occasions, he had opposed decisions made by the president. The junta reportedly never accepted to stay in the barracks after reluctantly turning power over to the civil Government. General Mane has not held any official position within the military hierarchy since February. However, he sparked a crisis in Guinea-Bissau on 20 November, when he overturned military promotions President Yala had made, announced the dismissal of chief of staff Verissimo Correia Seabra and proclaimed himself head of the military. The UN Security Council on several occasions has called on the members of the former military junta in Guinea-Bissau to subordinate themselves fully to the civilian institutions and withdraw from the political process. It repeated its message to the military on Wednesday, reiterating its "support for the democratically elected Government of Guinea-Bissau," and underlining that "all parties concerned, especially the members of the former military junta, must continue to uphold the results of the elections and the principles of democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights and civilian rule in the country." With the death of General Mane, the main threat to civilian Government is eliminated, and the clampdown of the revolting former strongman probably outrules any military interventions in Guinea-Bissau in the nearest future. While soldiers were celebrating in Bissau yesterday night, the town's inhabitants at large did not react to Mane's death in any special way. The town was reported to be calm. The war-tired population, which attributes supernatural forces to the General, however is relieved about the closing of this chapter of Guinean history. According to an analysis by PANA, with Mane dead, Yala now has elbowroom to complete the restructuring of the armed forces, which he had initiated. Also neighbouring Senegal had reason to celebrate, Mane being held responsible for the smuggling of weapons to the Casamance liberation movement. ©
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The geographical location indicates that Mane, after fleeing from the capital's airbase on 23 November, went westwards to Quinhamel, followed by troops loyal to the civilian Government. Caught up in Quinhamel, the only road connection leads further westwards towards the end of the Biombo Peninsula, a dead end. Here, he was cornered by the army.
