BRUSSELS, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The European Union will not extend a mission to help reform Guinea-Bissau's security forces because the country has failed to respect the rule of law since an army mutiny in April, the EU said on Monday.
The existing mission was launched in June 2008 to try and bring stability to a nation that has endured years of political turmoil and is now riddled with drug smugglers. It will end on Sept. 30 when its mandate expires, the EU said in a statement.
"Political instability and the lack of respect for the rule of law in the country make it impossible for the EU to deploy a follow up mission, as originally foreseen, without compromising its own principles," the statement said.
An army mutiny on April 1, led by General Antonio Injai, ousted Guinea-Bissau’s military chief and briefly detained Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior.
The European Union has since repeatedly expressed concern at the detention of civilian and military leaders, as well as the impunity of those behind the mutiny, and called on Guinea-Bissau to respect the rule of law.
But on June 25, Injai was appointed chief of the armed forces, frustrating the EU’s efforts. Monday’s statement said Injai’s appointment "confirms that the conditions for deployment of the new mission are not met".
Gomes Junior later on Monday declined to comment on the EU’s decision, saying that it was up to the president to do so.
A number of regional African summits have suggested that regional grouping ECOWAS could send a stabilisation force to the former Portuguese colony.
The idea has so far not gained much traction, though Soares Sambu, a spokesman for Guinea-Bissau’s president, said on Monday that it could not be ruled out.
"The political and military authorities accepted the idea of sending a stabilisation force to Guinea-Bissau," Sambu said, adding that the issue had been discussed at a meeting of the National Defence Council over the weekend.
U.N. officials say the tiny country on the coast of West Africa has become a hub of the drug trade between Latin America and Europe. Billions of dollars worth of cocaine are believed to pass through the mostly poor, weak nations of the region.
A number of political slayings last year, including that of Guinea-Bissau’s president, army chief and a presidential candidate, have been linked to the trade.
Last month, the United States said it could not help in international efforts to reform the country’s armed forces unless they were purged of suspected leaders of the growing West African drug trade.
Washington has named two senior Guinea-Bissau military officers as drug kingpins, one was the former chief of staff of the navy and the other the chief of staff of the air force.
