US concerned about int’l drug trafficking in G/Bissau

By Frederic Tendeng
The US Attaché for Political Affairs at the Embassy of the United States of America in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, Matthew Duty, has expressed his country’s concern about drug trafficking in Guinea Bissau.
Speaking before an audience of academics, students and journalists in Bissau, Matthew Duty said “we are seriously concerned with the challenges opposed to Guinea-Bissau’s democratic institutions in view of the numerous unpunished violations of basic human rights and homicides that leave criminals on the fringes of justice”.
According to him, the U.S. is mainly concerned about the trend and outcome of the investigations into the assassinations of former president, Nino Vieira, former Armed Forces’ Chief of Staff Tagmé Na Wai as well as Baciro Dabo and Helder Proença, both politicians and top civil servants who were all murdered.
Matthew Duty explained to his audience that “the Bissau-Guinean institutions have been weakened by two factors characterized by the strong intervention of the armed forces in political affairs and the ineffectiveness of the justice delivery system.”
The U.S. attaché added that, “this situation casts Guinea-Bissau onto the path of a failed state”.
The weakness of Guinea-Bissau as a state has offered its land as a safe heaven for international drug trafficking with many dealers benefiting from the coercive influence they have acquired thanks to corruption.
“Despite a slight decrease in the drug trafficking operations, there is no guarantee that traffickers have left the country altogether. Thus, we must give greater attention to preventing the resurgence of the drug trafficking phenomenon in Guinea-Bissau” Matthew Duty said.
The US diplomat stressed that “the concern raised by the Obama Administration in these matters should not be seen as U.S. meddling in the internal affairs of Guinea-Bissau, but only a contribution for that country to move forward positively.” He recalled that the US will soon avail the expertise of an American public prosecutor to judicial authorities in Bissau.
“The American judicial expert will work with the Guinean judicial authorities for a year in all procedures involving drug trafficking and other cases considered of extreme importance” he concluded.
Police Training Center
Meanwhile, Brazil will build a police training center in Guinea-Bissau to assist the country in fighting drug trafficking. The partnership announcement was made on Wednesday in Bissau by Roberto Tronconson, Brazil’s Federal Police director for combating organized crime.
The new center will involve an investment of $2.2 million, by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC).
For the past two years, the partnership between Brazil and African countries of Portuguese language has enabled the training and capacity building for more than 150 police officers from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe.