VOA标准英语2009年-Guinea-Bissau President Assassinated

Military leaders in Guinea-Bissau said they will respect constitutional order after mutinous¹ soldiers killed President Joao Bernardo Vieira early Monday.

Soldiers loyal to the slain² army chief attacked the presidential palace, killing³ President Vieira as he tried to escape. They blamed the president for a Sunday bomb attack that killed the head of the joint⁴ chiefs of staff, General Batista Tagme Na Waie.

Soldiers set up checkpoints at strategic locations around the capital. Banks, markets, and shops closed. Private radio stations resumed broadcasts after the military shut them down overnight.

Senior officers are calling for calm, saying the situation is under control and the military is acting⁵ as the "stabilizer of public order." In a statement read on national radio, military leaders said they would not tolerate what they called "looters and troublemakers⁶."

Prime Minister Carlos Gomes, Jr. met with senior army, air force, and naval⁷ officers following the president's death.

Gomes said he is hopeful the country can overcome this crisis. Speaking to reporters following his meeting with military leaders, the prime minister praised President Vieira as a patriot⁸ who loved his country.

Naval Commander Jose Zamora Induta told reporters that military chiefs assured the prime minister that this not a coup⁹ d'etat and the army will respect democratic principles.

Induta said the military will respect the constitution and follow the order of government succession.

Constitutional succession means National Assembly Speaker Raimundo Perreira will head the government before elections within 60 days.

The Economic Community of West African States said it is sending a delegation¹⁰ of regional foreign ministers to Bissau Tuesday to ensure the assembly speaker assumes interim¹¹ control of government affairs.

Commander Induta said military leaders do not know who killed President Vieira and the army is hunting down what he called an isolated¹² group of unidentified gunmen. The commander repeatedly denied any connection between the president's death and the bomb attack that killed General Waie late Sunday in a stairwell outside his office.
　
A Nov 2008 file photo of Pres. Joao Bernardo Vieira and his wife Isabella arriving to vote in Bissau

President Vieira was elected in 2005 following a civil war that drove him from office after 19 years in power. He survived a coup attempt in November when loyalist security forces fought off a three-hour attack on the presidential palace. That fighting led the interior ministry¹³ to recruit a 400-man militia¹⁴ to protect the president.

But those militiamen were disbanded last month when presidential rival Waie accused them of shooting at his car. International Crisis Group West Africa Project Director Richard Moncrieff said it is no surprise the general's supporters held the president responsible for the general's death.

"What is clear is that the soldiers who were loyal to Tagme Na Waie, who was a pretty popular guy within the army as I understand, they clearly felt that Vieira was responsible for his death. Of course, the antagonisms¹⁵ between the two were an open secret for a long time," he said.

This violent change of power is the latest in a series of army mutinies and coups¹⁶ since Guinea-Bissau's independence from Portugal in 1974.

Portugal said it will call an emergency meeting of the eight-member Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries to discuss the situation.

African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping is consulting with regional leaders on how best to address the crisis. An AU statement described the killings¹⁷ of President Vieira and General Waie as "cowardly and heinous¹⁸ attacks."

The U.S. Embassy in Senegal, which covers Guinea-Bissau, condemned¹⁹ the violence, calling for calm and urging all leaders to respect the rule of law and follow the established constitution order of succession.

Regional diplomats²⁰ said Guinea-Bissau's instability has been made worse by Latin American drug gangs using remote airstrips along the coast to smuggle²¹ cocaine²² to Europe.

1 mutinous   

adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变

参考例句：

• The mutinous sailors took control of the ship.反叛的水手们接管了那艘船。
• His own army,stung by defeats,is mutinous.经历失败的痛楚后，他所率军队出现反叛情绪。

2 slain   

杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词)

参考例句：

• The soldiers slain in the battle were burried that night. 在那天夜晚埋葬了在战斗中牺牲了的战士。
• His boy was dead, slain by the hand of the false Amulius. 他的儿子被奸诈的阿缪利乌斯杀死了。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

5 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

6 troublemakers   

n.惹是生非者，捣乱者( troublemaker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was employed to chuck out any troublemakers. 他受雇把捣乱者赶走。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She had automatically labelled the boys as troublemakers. 她不假思索地认定这些男孩子是捣蛋鬼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

8 patriot   

n.爱国者，爱国主义者

参考例句：

• He avowed himself a patriot.他自称自己是爱国者。
• He is a patriot who has won the admiration of the French already.他是一个已经赢得法国人敬仰的爱国者。

9 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

10 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

11 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

12 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

13 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

14 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

15 antagonisms   

对抗，敌对( antagonism的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The fundamental antagonisms in such an arrangement were obvious. 在这样一种安排中，基本矛盾很明显。
• The antagonisms between the two empires and systems were mortal. 这两个帝国和两种制度之间，有着不共戴天的仇恨。

16 coups   

n.意外而成功的行动( coup的名词复数 )；政变；努力办到难办的事

参考例句：

• China has seen many political coups within the ruling class. 中国统治阶级内部发生过很多政变。 来自互联网
• Thailand has had eighteen coups or coup attendance since nineteen thirty-two. 泰国1932年以来有18次政变或参加政变。 来自互联网

17 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

18 heinous   

adj.可憎的，十恶不赦的

参考例句：

• They admitted to the most heinous crimes.他们承认了极其恶劣的罪行。
• I do not want to meet that heinous person.我不想见那个十恶不赦的人。

19 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

20 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 smuggle   

vt.私运；vi.走私

参考例句：

• Friends managed to smuggle him secretly out of the country.朋友们想方设法将他秘密送出国了。
• She has managed to smuggle out the antiques without getting caught.她成功将古董走私出境，没有被逮捕。

22 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。