JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Military leaders in Guinea-Bissau pledged to restore order and democracy in the tiny West African nation Monday after the assassination of President Joao Bernardo Vieira by soldiers, just hours after the army chief was killed in a bombing.
Vieira and the head of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen. Batiste Tagme na Waie, were fierce rivals, and there was speculation that the president was killed to avenge Waie's death.
Military spokesman Zamora Induta said that Vieira's killing was not a military coup and that the army was searching for an isolated group of soldiers believed responsible. He said Vieira was killed as he tried to flee his house.
Waie was slain late Sunday at military headquarters.
African Union leaders and the Economic Community of West African States, a regional group, condemned the assassination. An AU statement described the attack on Vieira as "cowardly and heinous" and the regional group's spokesman, Mohamed ibn Chambas, called it the "assassination of democracy," according to Agence France-Presse news service.
As calm returned to Bissau, the capital, military leaders met with Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr.'s government.
"We reaffirmed our intention to respect the democratically elected power and the constitution of the republic," Induta, the military spokesman, said in a radio broadcast after the meeting. "The people who killed President Vieira have not been arrested but we are pursuing them. The situation is under control."
In the 35 years since Guinea-Bissau gained independence from Portugal, the West African nation has been destabilized by political rivalries, a civil war and coups.
Latin American drug traffickers routing cocaine through the country to Europe have added to the problems, with politicians and the military accusing one another of involvement in smuggling.
The country's open coastline, endemic corruption and lack of law and order make it an ideal transit point for narcotics. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said last year that Guinea-Bissau was on the verge of becoming a narco-state.
One of the poorest countries in Africa, Guinea-Bissau relies on foreign aid and cashew exports for income. Most of its 1.5 million population survives on less than a dollar a day. Its democratic institutions are weak or nonexistent.
A report by the International Crisis Group in January described Guinea-Bissau's institutions as feeble.
