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G.Bissau government picks interim army chief Bissau (AFP) March 15, 2009 Guinea-Bissau's government on Sunday named Commander Jose Zamora Induta interim chief of the armed forces, two weeks after army chief General Batista Tagme Na Waie was killed, the military said. Waie's killing by a bomb blast led to a revenge attack in which the country's president Joao Bernardo Vieira was assassinated. Guinea-Bissau has remained tense after the March 1-2 events. "Following a government proposal, which was accepted by the army, to avoid a void at the top of the armed forces, Commander Zamora Induta was appointed interim head of the armed forces," a military official told AFP. Zamora Induta, who is in his 40s, is seen as close to Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior and was the spokesman of the military committee set up after General Na Waie was killed to temporarily head the armed forces. He was trained in Russia and Portugal and rose in the navy hierarchy. He was the spokesman of the 1998-99 military junta when Vieira was briefly ousted during a civil war and was in charge of the armed forces' foreign relations and military strategies until last month. Colonel Antonio Injai, who was commander of the country's northern region and close to the late general, was named deputy army chief, a post which did not exist before. Guinea-Bissua's last three army chiefs were all murdered; General Ansumane Mane in 2000, General Verissimo Correia Sabra in 2004, and General Na Waie on March 1. Analysts noted on Sunday that the government chose a young officer to lead the armed forces rather than a military leader from an older generation or having taken part in the fight against colonial power Portugal which recognised Guinea-Bissau's independence in 1974. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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UN takes over Chad, CAR mission from EU peacekeepers Abeche, Chad (AFP) March 15, 2009 United Nations forces took over command from European Union peacekeepers here Sunday to protect refugees and displaced people in Chad and the Central African Republic. |
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