Regional leaders visit Guinea-Bissau to prevent crisis after president assassinated

Politicians were locked in talks today to try to safeguard law and order in Guinea-Bissau after the West African state was rocked by the assassination of its president. President Joao Bernardo Vieira, who was murdered by soldiers Monday morning, was savagely beaten before being shot several times in the throat and face."The president was hit by several bullets in the thorax and face and his body shows the marks of violent blows,” the doctor who did his autopsy told Agence France-Presse news agency."He was savagely beaten before being finished off with several bullets," said the doctor, who declined to be identified or to provide further details.The leader was assassinated at his home in apparent retaliation for a bomb blast on Sunday night which killed the head of the armed forces, General Tagme Na Waie.

The West African country’s capital Bissau was returning to normal on Tuesday with government ministries and businesses reopening and children going to school, residents said. Soldiers had mostly withdrawn from the streets of the capital after a show of force in the hours after the killings. National Assembly speaker Raimundo Perreira, who has taken over as interim leader, was holding talks with foreign envoys, including Portugal's Deputy Foreign Minister Joao Gomes Cravinho, officials said. He said he and a delegation from Lusophone states would also hold talks with Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior and representatives of the armed forces. Under the constitution, Perreira must organise presidential polls within 60 days.

Regional leaders from Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) led by Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheik Tidiane Gadio were also meeting with government officials. Military chiefs have pledged to respect constitutional order and denied that they had staged a coup. Guinea-Bissau has a history of coups and has become a notorious transit point for the cocaine trade between South America and Europe, raising the stakes in long-running power feuds between political and military leaders.

The African Union's Peace and Security Council demanded a probe into the killing. Its chairman Moamer Kadhafi said the 53-member body would send an envoy to Bissau "to assess the situation and prevent it from worsening."

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children