U.N. urges political dialogue in Guinea Bissau to end crisis

By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations on Friday urged political groups in Guinea Bissau to resume dialogue in the interest of ending an escalating power struggle that threatens to further undermine stability in the impoverished West African country. Guinea Bissau President Jose Mario Vaz last week named Baciro Dja as the new prime minister in a bid to end a power vacuum after he dismissed the government of previous premier Domingos Simoes Pereira, according to a decree read on state radio. The U.N.'s special envoy to Guinea Bissau, Miguel Trovoada, told the 15-member Security Council that the dismissed government had been a representative one that could have helped keep the country stable. "The government that has been removed was inclusive and made up of almost all the representative political parties in the popular national assembly, which assured that it had a comfortable basis of parliamentary support," he said. "It would seem that the main conditions were in place to ensure that there would be a framework of political stability that would be favorable to the proper functioning of the state," Trovoada added. The country's competing political parties need to resume dialogue if the crisis was to be set aside, he noted. "The lack of this essential dialogue has opened the door to further distrust and has deepened antagonisms to such an extent that the country is now at a point where it is today," Trovoada said. Demonstrations have so far been peaceful and without violence, Trovoada said, adding that the military has made clear that they would staying out of the political crisis and obey the constitution. Brazilian Ambassador Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, chair of the Guinea Bissau section of the U.N. peacebuilding commission, said the crisis could have wider implications. "The current crisis carries the risk of having a negative impact on the already fragile economic situation, on the stability of the country and on its democratic gains," he said. "Guinea-Bissau was making good progress toward stabilization and development since the elections of 2014," he added. "Our main goal should be to prevent that the escalation of the political crisis undermines progress achieved so far." A 2012 coup was followed by two years of unrest and a surge in drug trafficking, a concern to Western governments and neighboring African states worried at having an unstable narco-regime in an already fragile corner of West Africa.