afrol News, 14 January - The United Nations have pledged to pay out the US$ 909,000 still owed by the government of Guinea-Bissau to its former UN peacekeepers in Liberia. The outstanding salaries to these former peacekeepers caused a mutiny in Guinea-Bissau on 6 October last year.

The UN's Portuguese radio services today informed that the world organisation has decided "to liquidate the debt related to the participation of troops from Guinea-Bissau in the peacekeeping forces in Liberia." The outstanding sum of US$ 909,000, still owed by Bissau-Guinean authorities to its ex-peacekeepers, is handed out to the government in Bissau.

The unique aid agreement was today confirmed by sources in the UN and in the government of Guinea-Bissau. According to the UN, the amount has already been deposited in an account established for these payments in the Central Bank of Western African States (BCEAO). The Bissau-Guinean government thus could immediately started paying out its debts to its ex-peacekeepers.

The delay and poor coordination in the salary payments to the troops that had participated in the UN's peacekeeping mission in nearby Liberia (UNMIL) had caused a mutiny among these troops in Bissau on 6 October last year. In the mutiny, which threatened to develop into a coup d'état, the country's military chief of staff was killed.

The mutineers held the entire peace and transition process - which is still going on in Guinea-Bissau - at ransom during a few days in October. Only peace negotiations mediated by fellow Portuguese speaking governments and the UN brought an end to the mutiny.

The deal reached between the mutineers, the Bissau government and the international mediators included a controversial amnesty for all violations by the country's armed forces during the last decade. It also included an agreement on payments for the ex-peacekeepers, probably with the help from foreign governments or the UN itself. In exchange, the mutineers laid down their arms.

Despite the unique UN payment to the ex-mutineers, the government of Guinea-Bissau continues to accuse the international community of not complying to the promises made to the troubled country. The Foreign Affairs Minister of Guinea-Bissau, Soares Sambu, told the UN radio that more financial aid is needed to avoid similar violent incidents in the future.

According to Minister Sambu, "there is a strong pressure from the international community for the [Bissau] authorities to fulfil a number of requirements." However, these requirements had been coupled with aid pledges from the donor community, which were "not always followed up on," Mr Sambu said.

- No matter how hard we are working on a domestic level and how our efforts develop, the potential of tensions still exists and remains latent, the Minister added. "If nothing is done, of course there will come a time when the situation that developed on 6 October will be repeated on another level."

In his interview on the UN's Portuguese radio, the Bissau-Guinean Minister launched an appeal to the international community for more assistance. With the necessary aid from abroad, the government in Bissau would be able "to stand up to the innumerable challenges that it faces," Mr Sambu said.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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