* Leader who dominated post-independence history buried * Mourners hurt when steel railings collapse * Uncertainty over who will fill power vacuum By Alberto Dabo BISSAU, March 10 (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau buried slain President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira on Tuesday, laying to rest the man who has dominated the tiny West African state virtually since independence. Vieira's assassination last week by soldiers, in a revenge attack for the killing of an armed forces chief, demonstrated the military's readiness to intervene in politics in a country that U.N. drugs officials say risks becoming a narco-state. Thousands of people followed Vieira's coffin from the National Assembly building to the municipal cemetery in the capital Bissau where it was placed in a concrete tomb. More than a dozen of Nino's children were present, as were representatives of foreign governments, but no heads of state. Security forces held back crowds of people trying to enter the small cemetery but some members of the public were hurt when steel railings on the boundary wall collapsed. "Guinea-Bissau is going through the most difficult time in its history," said Raimundo Pereira, the National Assembly speaker sworn in as interim leader after Vieira's death. Pereira's administration is meant to last just 60 days, until presidential elections can be held, but it remains far from clear who will emerge as the country's new leader. And while the armed forces have vowed to obey the civilian authorities, analysts say they hold more power than the government. "The reality is, politics in Guinea-Bissau at regime level do not really exist in a constitutional sphere," said Chris Melville, senior Africa analyst at London-based Control Risks. "Informal authority and the authority of the military has always been hugely important, and will continue to be so," he said. "The armed forces and factions within the armed forces continue to pull the strings." RIVALS General Batista Tagme Na Wai and Vieira were killed within hours of each other last week, and their rivalry was central to a turbulent post-independence history that included more recent allegations of state complicity in cocaine smuggling. Fears of a coup in the former Portuguese colony receded when Pereira was sworn in last week but fears of instability persist. "All Guinea-Bissau's problems stem from the barracks, where the military doesn't do anything apart from meddle in politics," said ex-serviceman Alfredo Costa in Bissau. Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior appealed last week for foreign aid to help the country through the crisis sparked by the twin killings. In common with other West African countries, poor Guinea-Bissau has been targeted by Latin American drug trafficking gangs who see its poorly guarded coastline and corruptible officials as an easy route to smuggle Colombian cocaine into Africa on its way to lucrative markets in Europe. United Nations drugs experts say the cocaine trade has heightened insecurity and graft in a country already racked by years of coups and civil conflict, and threatens to turn much of Africa's Atlantic shoreline into a "Coke Coast". (Writing and additional reporting by Daniel Magnowski in Dakar; Editing by Jon Boyle)
A street vendor waits for customers on the main road in Bissau March 10, 2009. Life in Bissau began to return to normal with some shops reopening, but people remained on ...
