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Dipl
omats negotiating with the junta that seized power in Sao Tome
and Principe flew yesterday to Gabon to discuss a proposed accord
with ousted president Fradique de Menezes, the Portuguese Lusa news
agency reported.
Citing a diplomat who requested anonymity, the news agency said the
three mediators were the Gabonese and Congolese foreign ministers,
Jean Ping and Rodolphe Adada, and Angolan Interior Minister Oswaldo
van Dunen.
De Menezes, who was in Nigeria during the July 16 coup, went
Tuesday to the Gabonese capital Libreville where he met with
President Omar Bongo.
The negotiations in Sao Tome, led by Adada, were reportedly close
to an agreement yesterday that will pave the way for De Menezes'
return to the former Portuguese colony.
Lusa said the junta's negotiators met early yesterday afternoon
with a South African delegation headed by South African Ambassador
to Libreville Samuel Monaisa Moutghetit.
The eight-member team has been asked to help resolve issues raised
by some of the putschists - former members of the feared Buffalo
Battalion who fought as mercenaries against South Africa's former
apartheid regime - who have been ostracised since returning home to
Sao Tome.
The coup leaders, headed by Major Fernando Pereira, had asked for a
South African delegation to take part directly in talks between the
junta and the 30-strong international mediation team.
But it was agreed that the South African mission would discuss the
issues of the former mercenaries on the sidelines of the
negotiations, diplomats said. – Sapa-AFP.
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