G.Bissau PM open to debate after calls he resign

Guinea Bissau Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior said Thursday he was ready for a political debate after thousands took to the streets demanding he resign in two separate protests. "I am ready for a positive political debate," Gomes Junior said as he left a meeting with President Malam Bacai Sanha who on Thursday also met diplomats and representatives of international bodies in Bissau. "I would have been willing to give up my seat if the opposition had lodged a motion of no confidence in Parliament. I think that is the most appropriate forum," said Gomes Junior. On July 14 and 19, a coalition of thirteen opposition parties held protests which saw thousands calling for Gomes Junior to step down, chiefly over his failure to shed light on a spate of political assassinations in 2009. Ex-president Joao Bernardo Vieira and former army chief General Batista Tagme Na Waie were assassinated in March 2009. Two other high-profile politicians, Baciro Dabo and Helder Proenca, were killed three months later. Authorities have said the investigation has reached a dead-end due to a lack of evidence. President Sanha was out of the country during the protests, but on Tuesday met opposition and civil society leaders calling for Gomes Junior's head. On Thursday Sanha met the president of the Supreme Court, representatives of the African Union, the European Union, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). "In a democracy, people must express their opinions," said the head of the EU delegation Joaquin Gonzalez-Ducay, upon leaving the meeting. "We reiterated the EU's commitment to support reforms underway in the country and the current situation will not change the EU's position." The small west African nation has seen repeated coups since independence from Portugal in 1974, with its powerful army seen as controlling the country and handing out summary justice. In April 2010, Gomes Junior was arrested and detained by renegade soldiers threatening to kill him in what was said to be an army mutiny.