Bissau coup plotters 'tortured'

Bissau coup plotters 'tortured'

Yala's government has been asked to account of death

An independent human rights group in Guinea-Bissau has said that an army corporal who died in prison last week was tortured.

A statement from the Guinea-Bissau Human Rights League (LGDH) says other people accused of plotting a coup against President Kumba Yala last December are "seriously ill" after being tortured.

The LGDH said that it had received documents and photographs from Corporal Mussa Gassama's family showing that he had been tortured to death.

The doctor at the prison at Cumere, some 10 kilometres from the capital Bissau, blamed the corporal's death on high blood pressure.

Political instability has impoverished Guinea-Bissau since its independence from Portugal in the 1970s.

Elections looming

The rights league said it has submitted to the representative of the United Nations secretary general in Bissau "clear proof of torture".

It adds that the corporal's family had written to the government demanding an explanation to his death.

The statement said that Corporal Gassama's body showed evidence of violent torture especially on the arms, feet and neck.

Instability has left Bissau a very impoverished nation

The death and accusations of torture come as the country prepares to go to the polls on 20 April.

The United Nations and the European Community have said the poll must be transparent.

The election was originally expected to be held in February, within the three-month deadline required under the constitution.

President Kumba Yala, who took power in 2000, dissolved parliament in November last year following a row with his prime minister.

The last elections to be held in Guinea Bissau were in 1999, and were part of an accord to end a civil war which killed about 2,000 people.