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Guinea-Bissau: UN orders sanctions against G. Bissau coup leaders
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- Antonio Indjai (L) faces a travel ban
- The UN Security Council unanimously ordered sanctions Friday against the leaders of last month's military coup in Guinea-Bissau.
  
  The 15-nation council ordered a travel ban against five top military officers in the West African nation, led by chief of staff General Antonio Indjai.
  
  The European Union has also ordered sanctions over the April 12 coup and Guinea-Bissau has been suspended by the African Union.
  
  "Coup d'etats against legitimate democratic authorities are simply unacceptable," said Portugal's UN ambassador Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, whose country drew up the sanctions resolution with Togo.
  
  "We are gravely concerned by increasing reports of recurrent human rights violations" by the military command, Cabral told the council after the resolution was passed.
  
  The Security Council renewed its "strong condemnation" of the coup, which was carried out as the country prepared for the second round of a presidential election. It also expressed concern about reports of the pillaging of state funds.
  
  The resolution demanded that "the military command takes immediate steps to respect constitutional order."
  
  It ordered the travel ban against Indjai, his deputy Major General Mamadu Ture and top officers General Estevao Na Mena, Brigadier General Ibraima Camara and Lieutenant Colonel Daba Naualna.
  
  The vote was held on the day that the first 70 soldiers from a West African force arrived in Guinea-Bissau on a mission to restore stability.
  
  The soldiers from Burkina Faso arrived just after the Economic Community of West African states (ECOWAS) announced it was deploying 629 troops to Guinea-Bissau to relieve an Angolan stabilization force and help "the restoration of constitutional rule."
Tags:UN Security Council, Antonio Indjai, Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, Mamadu Ture, Estevao Na Mena.
Source:New Era