Joseph Mutaboba, the UN Secretary General Representative in Bissau, has on Tuesday termed the intervention by Bissau Guinean soldiers on April 1st in the country’s UN premises as “a clear violation of UN diplomatic immunity”. It should be recalled that diplomatic law is that area of international law that governs permanent and temporary diplomatic missions. Key elements of diplomatic law are the immunity of diplomatic staff, the inviolability of the diplomatic mission and its grounds, and the security of diplomatic correspondence and diplomatic bags. It is therefore an absolute rule that the premises of the mission are inviolable and agents of the receiving state cannot enter them without the consent of the mission.
Speaking to journalists who asked him what really happened that day, Mr Mutaboba said “It is no secret and a public fact that the soldiers came here broke and violated the UN headquarters which is also unconstitutional”. The unrestrained soldiers had little or no regards for international law but were visibly blinded by the sole purpose of solving accounts to anybody attempting to stop them from absconding cons-Admiral Bubo Na Tchuto. According Mutoboba, the soldiers came to flee former Guinea Bissau Navy Chief, cons-Admiral Bubo Na Tchuto who was hiding in the Bissau UN premises for over three months. The UN official also stressed that Bubo Na Tchuto left the UN building » on his own will after signing an official document in which he bears the responsibility and consequences of his act. « I personally asked if Bubo Na Tchuto is not exposing himself to any risk by going out with the soldiers who came looking for him. He [Bubo] said there was no risk, » said Mutoboba.
He said the United Nations “strongly condemns and call it unconstitutional” the military intervention of April 1st which led to the detention of Guinea Bissau’s Army Chief of Staff, Admiral Zamora Induta and the confinement for hours of Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior. Joseph Mutoboba recalled that this is also the position defended by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the Security Council. That’s why he invites “all actors to engage Guinea Bissau in the path of a sincere and constructive dialogue”.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has not yet specifically discussed the crisis in Guinea Bissau however, Kiyoshi Wada, spokesman of Japan’s diplomatic mission at the United Nations said the issue was raised during a broad debate on the UN integrated missions which provided this month interim chair of this very large organ. The Japanese diplomat whose country chairs the UN Security Council on interim revealed that the situation in Bissau is closely at watch. “We are closely monitoring the situation and the phenomenon of drug trafficking. We share the vision of the US Department of Treasury which froze the assets of Guinea Bissau’s Air Force Chief, Papa Ibrahima Camara and cons-Admiral Jose Bubo Na Tchuto for having « played an important role in drug trafficking » .
By Frederic Tendeng
Xalimasn.com
