25 November 2009 – 13H53
January 31 election promise ‘impossible’ to keep
The promise by Guinea’s military rulers to hold elections on January 31 will be “technically impossible” to keep, the head of the west African country’s poll commission told AFP Wednesday.
By News Wires (text)
AFP – The promise by Guinea’s military rulers to hold elections on January 31 will be “technically impossible” to keep, the head of the west African country’s poll commission told AFP Wednesday.
“It is technically impossible to hold elections at the planned date because of several unforeseen circumstances,” said voting commission chief Ben Sekou Sylla, speaking by telephone from Guinea’s capital Conakry.
He added that voter lists had yet to be drawn up because international donors have withdrawn aid for Guinea following the September massacre of scores of opposition protesters by the security forces.
“We have not even commissioned electoral materials yet, we don’t have voter lists because of the suspension of financial aid by donors,” Sylla explained.
“We are waiting to be asked to propose a new date and maybe the ongoing talks in Ouagadougou will lead to that,” he added, referring to talks in the Burkina Faso capital between the junta and the opposition.
The junta, which seized power in a bloodless coup in December 2008, had pledged to hold presidential elections on January 31.
However the country has been in political deadlock after government forces opened fire on anti-junta demonstrators at a football stadium in September. The UN and human rights organisations said more than 150 civilians were killed.
For the past few weeks Burkina Faso’s president Blaise Compaore, who has been designated as the international mediator in the conflict, has been trying to lead negotiations between the rival factions but so far his proposals have been rejected. “
Guinea’s independent press group threatened by military
afrol News, 27 November - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has raised alarm with the safety and protection of the media in Guinea following an alleged plot by the military junta, targeting the independent media.
RSF said it had learned from a source within the military government in Conakry that the Lynx-Lance press group and some of its journalists could be the target of an “operation.” Consisting of two weeklies, “La Lance” and the satirical “Le Lynx”, with a combined print run that is the largest in Guinea, the group is renowned for being independent and outspoken.
“We are taking this information and the threat it entails very seriously,” RSF said. “With a climate of fear still prevailing within the Guinean media, we will hold the junta responsible for any use of violence against the Lynx-Lance press group and its employees. We also urge Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré, who is mediating in the Guinean crisis, to ask the junta to respect media freedom and the expression of diverse views.”
RSF said in a statement that it was told that the operation would consist of a night-time raid on the press group’s headquarters and “ambushes” against some of its journalists, further adding that the source said these attacks would be blamed on “uncontrolled elements.” It appears that the military have decided to “silence” the Lynx-Lance group because of its perceived support for the opposition, the media watchdog said.
Souleymane Diallo, the head of the Lynx-Lance group, also reportedly told Reporters Without Borders: “We must not let ourselves be discouraged by this information. We will continue to do our job with objectivity, as we always do.”
In a separate case, Reporters Without Borders had deplored the fact that Talibé Barry, the editor of the L’Indépendant press group, was summoned for questioning at the headquarters of the national gendarmerie on 11 November in connection with an article about the disappearance of a soldier.
Guinea’s journalists meanwhile regard Cheikh Fantamady Condé’s recent appointment as information and culture minister as a backward step for press freedom. Mr Condé is said to believe in media uniformity and is keeping Radio Télévision Guinéenne (RTG) and the other state media under close control, ensuring that their coverage of political developments is muted.
Ever since the military dispersed an opposition protest in a Conakry stadium with great loss of life on 28 September, many Guinean journalists have been living in fear, in part because of reliable reports that a blacklist of journalists has been compiled by staunch supporters of Guinea’s military leader, Capt Dadis Camara, for an operation called “Dadis or death.”
In the immediate aftermath of the 28 September massacre, the junta organised a manhunt for the “traitors” within the media who had “sold out Guinea” to the international community by covering the massacre. Several journalists who work for international media or online media have fled the country because of death threats. Some, who Reporters Without Borders prefers not to name, are seeking asylum abroad.
GUINEA: South Africa’s “Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act” and Junta’s Mercenaries
Thought Leader » Michael Trapido »
Are SA mercenaries assisting Guinea’s military junta?
Following is an excerpt from the above article:
South Africa’s “Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act”In terms thereof the relevant sections are :
Definitions :
(iii) ‘‘foreign military assistance’’ means military services or military-related
services, or any attempt, encouragement, incitement or solicitation to render
such services, in the form of—
(a) military assistance to a party to the armed conflict by means of—
(i) advice or training;
(ii) personnel, financial, logistical, intelligence or operational support;
(iii) personnel recruitment;
(iv) medical or para-medical services; or
(v) procurement of equipment;
(b) security services for the protection of individuals involved in armed
conflict or their property;
(c) any action aimed at overthrowing a government or undermining the
constitutional order, sovereignty or territorial integrity of a state;
(d) any other action that has the result of furthering the military interests of
a party to the armed conflict,3. No person may within the Republic or elsewhere—
(a) offer to render any foreign military assistance to any state or organ of state,
group of persons or other entity or person unless he or she has been granted
authorisation to offer such assistance in terms of section 4;
(b) render any foreign military assistance to any state or organ of state, group of
persons or other entity or person unless such assistance is rendered in
accordance with an agreement approved in terms of section 5.8. (1) Any person who contravenes any provision of section 2 or 3, or fails to comply
with a condition with regard to any authorisation or approval granted in terms of section
4 or 5, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment
or to both such fine and imprisonment.
(2) The court convicting any person of an offence under this Act may declare any
armament, weapon, vehicle, uniform, equipment or other property or object in respect of
which the offence was committed or which was used for, or in connection with the
commission of the offence, to be forfeited to the state.
Accordingly if South Africans have been training foreign military without authorisation as set out in sections 4 and 5 of the act then they have committed an offence in terms of the act and are liable to punishment in terms of Section 8 thereof.
In terms of the definition set out in iii above it would appear that any South African found with the junta’s military would have an extremely difficult time explaining the reason for his being there. The act is clear; you cannot render foreign military assistance inside or outside the republic without permission.
Louise Arbour, in addition to being the president of International Crisis Group, is the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
By LOUISE ARBOUR
Published: November 26, 2009
Three West African states — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire — have emerged from civil war to fragile stability in the past few years. But a civil war is brewing in Guinea that may destroy those achievements and produce a humanitarian disaster.
When the country’s long-time dictator, Lansana Conte, died in 2008, it briefly looked like Guinea might transition relatively smoothly to elected government. That hope began to fade when Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, the leader of the military junta that had taken over, began to backtrack from the promise that he would not seek permanent power. It turned to nightmare on Sept. 28, when soldiers killed more than 150 demonstrators and raped scores of women.
There may be worse to come. In the month before that massacre, observers reported the recruitment of militias in Guinea’s isolated forest region, where elements of the badly fractured military leadership were training fighters for possible bids to seize power.
Many of these fighters are ex-combatants from the Liberian civil war, when Guinean militias helped overthrow Charles Taylor’s dictatorship. In its recruiting drive, the junta, some of whose members were deeply involved in that conflict, is reactivating the networks that fed West Africa’s recent wars.
Two days after the massacre, officials from the regional organization, Ecowas, told the International Crisis Group that international action was urgently needed to remove the military from power and hold early elections. Their fear was not only of a war that could spread like wildfire but also of the consequences of another power grab.
Only months before, the president of Niger overthrew his country’s Constitution and got away with it. Captain Camara and the Guinean military saw that and drew the conclusion that they could do likewise. If they now solidify their power, a half dozen leaders across Africa will be calculating their chances to do the same, Ecowas officials warned. We must not allow that to happen.
After the September massacre, Ecowas and the African Union began demanding that the military keep its promise to yield power to elected civilians and appointed President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso to mediate the process.
The large majority of Guineans who insist they will not accept military rule have formed the Forces Vives, a coalition of political parties, unions and other elements of civil society. But Captain Camara and the junta will not go easily. Mr. Compaoré, a former soldier, coup leader and political godfather of Charles Taylor, is not the most reliable man to preach democracy and civilian rule.
An attempt to replace Captain Camara, who gives signs of mental instability, with another general, even temporarily, could fracture the military’s unity and bring the militias out of their forest camps with guns blazing. The Forces Vives understandably will not accept a junta offer or a Compaoré proposal of a “national union” government the military would inevitably dominate.
What is needed quickly is broad international support for the good intentions of Ecowas and the African Union. The Compaoré mission should accept U.N. offers of mediation support and stick to the region’s initial objective: managing the junta’s withdrawal from power. The U.S., with a major investment in a stable Liberia, should supplement its diplomatic backing for that effort by delegating a senior military officer to speak general-to-general with the junta.
The junta has abused Russia’s major bauxite investment to the point that Moscow recognizes the junta equals chaos, and is cooperating with the Africans. Immediately after the September massacre, the junta announced a $7 billion Chinese investment. Details of the deal with the Hong Kong-based company remain murky, and there are clear signs Beijing is skeptical that its interests would be served by Captain Camara. In any case, it should make sure no Chinese company props up the junta.
The elements of an unusually unified international approach — a transitional administration for no more than six months to prepare civilian elections — thus exist. What is needed is high-level attention in the main capitals, both to keep the pressure on and to prepare an operational strategy.
That strategy needs to include incentives for the Guinean military to cooperate — incentives that involve legitimate roles under a civilian-led government. An early step should be to get an Ecowas political and military team on the ground in Guinea, to provide guarantees against another massacre and prepare the way for a group to safeguard elections. The alternative for quickly putting such a strategy in place is likely to be a new war from which all West Africa would suffer.
Louise Arbour is president of the International Crisis Group.
“We have recorded 100 cases of rape against women committed Sept. 28 and the two days that followed,” said Thierno Maadjou Sow, president of the Guinean Organisation of Human Rights, which is working with the U.N. investigators.
“Most were schoolchildren, students, businesswomen, teachers, even journalists.”
The organisation had found evidence that 20 victims were taken from a medical clinic to secret locations where they were drugged and raped repeatedly.
At least 100 women raped during Guinea protest crackdown
* UN experts investigating human rights abuses
By Saliou Samb
CONAKRY, Nov 26 (Reuters) – Guinean soldiers raped at least 100 women during a crackdown on protesters in September, a human rights group said on Thursday.
The findings were released as United Nations experts began to investigate the repression, in which about 160 people were killed. The crackdown has drawn widespread condemnation and brought sanctions against the ruling military junta.
“We have recorded 100 cases of rape against women committed Sept. 28 and the two days that followed,” said Thierno Maadjou Sow, president of the Guinean Organisation of Human Rights, which is working with the U.N. investigators.
“Most were schoolchildren, students, businesswomen, teachers, even journalists.”
The organisation had found evidence that 20 victims were taken from a medical clinic to secret locations where they were drugged and raped repeatedly.
Three U.N. experts arrived in the West African nation, the world’s top supplier of aluminum ore bauxite, on Wednesday to investigate the crackdown in which security forces used guns, steel pipes and knives on unarmed demonstrators gathered in a Conakry stadium.
Witnesses have said some soldiers violated women using gunbarrels and bayonets.
The demonstrators were protesting against the junta, whose leader Captain Musa Dadis Camara stepped back from a promise to opt out of elections intended to restore civilian rule.
The former soldier came to power in a coup in December following the death of strongman President Lansana Conte, briefly enjoying popularity among Guineans hopeful for a less ruthless regime.
International efforts to stave off new violence in the country have been complicated by reports Camara has hired foreign mercenaries to train a force to secure his place in power.
Sow said the U.N. investigation could be hampered by fear among witnesses of retribution if they cooperate.
“Many of the raped women have already been interviewed but today some of them are so fearful that we wonder how they will react,” Sow said.
Camara and his junta allies have faced condemnation from African neighbours, Washington and Brussels, and were hit by travel bans, freezes on foreign bank accounts and an arms embargo.
((Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Angus MacSwan, richard.valdmanis@thomsonreuters.com; Dakar newsroom +221 33 864 5076)) (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/)”
Guinea Junta Leader Threatens to Keep Some Opposition Leaders from Running in Next Election
Junta seems to think that it is not possible to hold Guinea’s next presidential election by the end of next January.
Guinea junta moves to bar opposition from the vote
25 November 2009 – 18H49
AFP – Guinea’s military junta on Wednesday threatened to keep opposition leaders out of a presidential election which the country’s poll watchdog said would be impossible to hold anyway.
Political tensions also mounted ahead of the arrival of a UN team to investigate a massacre of opposition demonstrators in a stadium in which at least 150 people were killed, according to the UN and rights groups.
International donors have withdrawn aid in an effort to press Moussa Dadis Camara’s junta into talks with the opposition.
Speaking in Burkina Faso, where President Blaise Campaore has tried to mediate in the crisis, the junta’s Communications Minister Idrissa Cherif told AFP that no-one who has been prime minister in Guinea would be allowed to take part in the presidential election which is scheduled for January 31.
“The country has been pillaged, sold off, by these people, we cannot accept that,” Cherif said, adding that the former leaders should face legal action.
“The new constitution that we are going to put in place will say who can be a candidate and who can’t. But we cannot let these people who are not clean run the country again,” Cherif said.
The move would effectively block at least three major opposition leaders who have been prime minister from running for president.
The opposition last week rejected proposals allowing the junta to stay in power while a transitional government of national unity organises new elections.
Under the proposals, junta leader Camara would be allowed to be a candidate for the presidency, something the opposition has repeatedly opposed.
Camara came to power in a coup on December 23, 2008 after the death of dictator Lansana Conte, who had led the country since 1984. Initial optimism quickly soured in the mineral-rich country however.
The opposition demonstration in a Conakry stadium on September 28 was to oppose Camara’s standing for the presidency. Troops opened fire there killing between 150 and 200 people, according to rights groups. Many women were publicly raped by the soldiers.
The junta says 56 people were killed and 934 injured in the stadium.
The UN team was expected in Conakry late on Wednesday to step up an investigation into the events. An advance mission arrived in mid-November to gather testimony.
“The Guinean Organisation for the Defence of Human Rights (OGDH) has already given dozens of victim’s statements, audio and video files to the (UN) technical commission,” Abdoul Gadiri Diallo of the OGDH said.
He added however that several soldiers who had indicated that they were ready to testify about the killings could no longer be reached. The rights watchdog said some soldiers had been sent away on special missions while others have disappeared.
Guinea’s electoral commission said the January 31 date set by the junta for the presidential election was technically impossible because of lack of funds.
“We have not even commissioned electoral materials yet, we don’t have voter lists because of the suspension of financial aid by donors,” commission chief Ben Sekou Sylla told AFP.
Mamadou Baadiko Bah, head of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces (UFD) said that “since the events of September 28, it is impossible to even consider free and fair elections.” Bah said there was “no national consensus” for a vote.
Unearthing the truth of Guinea ‘bloodbath’ |
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A United Nations Commission of Inquiry is beginning an investigation into a mass killing in Guinea, described as a “bloodbath” by one UN official. The three-person commission will look into the violent suppression of a pro-democracy demonstration in the national football stadium on 28 September.
“It will try to establish the facts, classify the crimes and determine who was responsible,” said a diplomat well-informed about the mission, but who requested anonymity. Guineans have made consistent and detailed allegations about how the security forces attacked the crowd in the stadium. Soldiers – including members of the Presidential Guard – opened fire on unarmed civilians who were holding a rally calling on the military government to leave power. “The firing was directed at the people, at the demonstrators,” one man who was at the stadium on 28 September said. As with most of the people I spoke to, he requested anonymity. “This was not firing to scare people away, this was meant to kill. People got hit by bullets, people got trampled, I leapt over bodies, bodies that were lying in pools of blood.” Another man described seeing “hundreds of dead” and “thousands of people injured”. “It is not an army of the people,” he said. “This is an army that massacres.” ‘Stalin would blush’ Women told stories of being raped and beaten by soldiers.
“They hit me again and again. They tortured me. They took a piece of wood and then they tried to push it inside my vagina,” said a woman who attended the rally with her younger sister. “They were raping others around me, some with pieces of wood. One cousin of mine, they raped her with the muzzle of a rifle.” There were accounts of bodies being taken away by men in uniform and rumours of secret mass graves. An inquiry by Human Rights Watch concluded that the killings constituted a “premeditated massacre of at least 150 people”. Diplomats based in the capital, Conakry, who also requested anonymity, said the violence was “an outrage” and “a massacre”. One diplomat said the killings and the rapes – carried out brazenly, in public – “would have made Stalin blush”. The military government – known widely in Guinea as “the junta” – said 57 people died in and around the stadium, some of them crushed in the surging crowd. Ethnic politics The junta leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, said he was not in complete control of the armed forces. He claimed that military command structures had been confused since independence from France in 1958 and said it was unfair to expect him to have brought matters under control in just a few months.
Capt Camara heads the junta but holds a relatively junior army rank The UN commission is arriving at an extremely sensitive time. A senior US official, William Fitzgerald, has accused the junta of recruiting South African mercenaries to train ethnic militias loyal to Captain Camara. It is an open secret in Guinea that there are tensions within the armed forces. The most obvious manifestation of this is that a captain, a relatively junior rank, is in charge of a government which also contains officers such as majors and at least one general – all of whom should in theory outrank him. But potentially more dangerous is the theory among many political analysts in Guinea that Capt Camara’s relatively small ethnic group – in fact a combination of tribes from the far south of the country known as the “Forestiers” – appear to think it is “their turn” to rule irrespective of any democratic mandate. The analysts say Capt Camara and his colleagues believe that the Soussou – the ethnic group of former President Lansana Conte – have had their turn. And since one of the largest ethnic groups, the Peul, dominate the economy, it is now the Forestiers’ right to run the administration. ‘Fabric of impunity’ Although there is no obvious external threat – and Guinea has a much larger army than its neighbours – senior military officers travel around the capital in heavily armed convoys as if they fear for their own safety.
Several civilian ministers have resigned since the killings on 28 September in an attempt to distance themselves from the junta. Attempts to bridge the gap between the civilian political parties – most of which were represented at the pro-democracy rally in the stadium – and the military have not advanced. The civilian parties have simply demanded that the military leaves power. The West African grouping Ecowas has also called on the soldiers to step down and promise they will not stand in and election due next year. But Capt Camara has failed to make this promise. Strangely, an Ecowas-appointed negotiator, President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, subsequently offered Capt Camara a deal which would allow him to stay in power and later stand in the election. Mr Compaore is a former military man himself.
Guinea has a much larger army than its neighbours The UN commission is led by a former Algerian foreign minister and judge, Mohamed Bedjaoui. He is assisted by two women, Francoise Ngendahayo Kayiramirwa of Burundi (a former minister in her country) and the senior lawyer Pramila Patten of Mauritius. The three are backed by a small secretariat of human rights investigators working under the umbrella of the UN High Commission for Human Rights. The Geneva-based Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, said shortly after the killings at the stadium that “[the] bloodbath must not become part of the fabric of impunity that has enveloped Guinea for decades”. Full co-operation Diplomats said Mr Bedjaoui and his colleagues on the commission intend to get to the truth of what happened on 28 September – but are also deeply concerned about protecting witnesses who testify to the events. The great fear among civilians in Guinea is that tensions between the soldiers could mount if it becomes apparent that some of them intend to “sacrifice” other military men to the enquiry. Some of the officers and men present at the stadium were filmed on video or mobile phones. They may be among the first to be called to explain their actions. But although the junta has promised full co-operation with the UN enquiry, it is not clear what could happen if the commission’s work is blocked in any way. The UN body could find fruitful avenues of enquiry, for example, within the sprawling military headquarters, Camp Alpha Yaya. Some reports say individual officers have set up military strong points within the camp – and some of the persistent rumours of secret mass graves say they are “in military camps”. But well-informed sources say that experienced organisations with a permanent presence in Conakry, such as the Red Cross, have been denied access to Camp Alpha Yaya. The commission only plans, in the first instance, to spend 10 days in the country. |
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They were raping others around me, some with pieces of wood. One cousin of mine they raped her with the muzzle of a rifle 
Woman assaulted by soldiers
Capt Camara has admitted he is not in complete control of the armed forces
10:16 November 24th, 2009
Is the “wonga” running out for Africa’s mercenaries?
Posted by: David Lewis
Tags: Africa Blog, “dogs of war”, Camara, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, junta, mercenaries, Simon Mann
Africa’s infamous “dogs of war” may still be going strong, but it seems the rewards of the mercenary life aren’t quite what they used to be.
Only this month, Britain’s Simon Mann won a pardon for his part in a foiled 2004 coup attempt on Equatorial Guinea, an old-style adventure whose glittering prize was the central African state’s multi-billion-dollar oil riches.
Contrast that to reports last week that a band of South African and other mercenaries had flown into the chaos of Guinea to train up a militia loyal to the incumbent junta leader — on a salary put at barely $3,500 a month.
That’s not bad money in most parts of the world, and there were reports that the company involved would have won extra remuneration in the form of minerals from Guinea’s fecund soil.
But it would have been peanuts to Mann, whose Equatorial Guinea coup was known as the “Wonga Plot” after the English slang for the money they hoped to yield in buckets.
While mercenaries are often seen as in the business of bringing governments down, it is not new that they should be trying to prop one up, as is happening in Guinea.
Mann himself is reported to have worked for the Angolan government in the 1990s to help it wrest back control of a key port from rebels, and again for Sierra Leonean authorities in the 2002 civil war there.
But what has changed since then is the economics. Thanks to the steady flow of new oil and mineral finds on the continent, the private security business in Africa is booming. A lot of the real pros now find there is steady money to made in guarding a gold mine in northern Congo, for example.
The more dubious end of the business is now increasingly the preserve of what some describe as cowboys.
“They couldn’t get enough people to do the job,” Henri Boshoff, a military analyst who served in the South African army, told Reuters of the mercenaries hired by Guinean junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara. “(The South Africans) were very desperate. They are not being very well paid.”
The Guinea mercenaries may not be in the same league as Mann and his fellow Wonga plotters, but their capacity to stir up trouble should not be underestimated.
The fact that Camara’s militia is being selected on tribal lines could add an alarming new ethnic dimension to Guinea’s instability.
Security sources also told Reuters that part of their job is to ensure the arrival of arms acquired by the junta in Ukraine in direct contravention of an international arms embargo.
South Africa is keen to get rid of its reputation as a training ground for hired guns and is officially investigating the activities of its nationals in Guinea.
Depending on what it finds, it may have to decide whether they are in breach of its
three-year-old anti-mercenary law that still contains grey areas as to what is mercenary behaviour.
Is it time for a more concerted effort by governments to end the days of Africa’s dogs of war? Or will the wonga run out by itself?
YPNXN9V6URBV
GUINEA: What’s Up in Ouagadougou? Two Reports on Compaore’s Proposal and Next Steps
Guinea’s opposition renews confidence in Compaore as facilitator to tackle crisis
News Date: 24th November 2009
After totally rejecting the ECOWAS facilitator’s proposals for ending the political crisis, Guinea’s pressure groups have renewed their confidence in Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore in efforts to find a way out.
Compaore, who was named the facilitator weeks ago by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, have invited the opposition pressure groups and the military junta’s team for talks in Ouagadougou for a power sharing deal. But the stalemate is yet to break following the deadly Sept. 28 clash in Conakry.
Guinea’s pressure groups were hosted in Ouagadougou on Friday and Saturday by President Compaore, who asked them to come up with a document detailing their grievances on the proposals that he had given them.
One of the opposition leaders, Sydia Toure, who was a former prime minister, noted on Sunday that the pressure groups only rejected the contents of the document but not the facilitator himself.
In their own document, the pressure groups insist the departure of the National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD) of Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara is “not negotiable” and that none of the members serving in the current government of the junta should be a presidential candidate.
According to well placed sources, the document from the pressure groups was handed over to the facilitator on Sunday.
The junta delegation already left Ouagadougou for Conakry and is expected back on Tuesday to continue with the negotiations.
The coming week is expected to be decisive for the protagonists in the Guinean crisis.
Guinea: Talks extended after rejection of mediation proposal
Source: Missionary International Service News Agency (MISNA)
Date: 23 Nov 2009
After hours of misunderstandings and discontent, which raised fears of an impasse in negotiations mediated by Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore, designated by the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), the talks resume today for three days in Ouagadougou between Guinea’s ruling junta and opposition.
The so-called Live Forces, which includes the opposition, unions and civil society, is due to present a counter-proposal to the mediator, after rejecting a proposal of the mediator on Friday that foresaw a 10-months transition period, headed by the junta leader captain Moussa Dadis Camara.
The Live Forces remain firm on their position regarding Camara, demanding he step down and the dissolution of the junta, as suggested in the past by the ‘International Contact Group for Guinea’.
According to the Live Forces, the transition must be headed by a civilian or military figure chosen consensually by the sides and no junta member should be allowed to run in the elections.
“My proposals are merely a preliminary phase of the negotiation, now the true debate opens”, said Compaore, whose mediating role drew some criticism, though he obtained the trust of the sides.
After 25 years of military rule of the late general Lansana Conte, Guinea has been ruled for 10 months by the junta, which progressively lost popularity after the announcement of a possible candidature in the presidential election of Camara.
The situation deteriorated further after the September 28 violent crackdown on an opposition demonstration that according to independent sources and the UN left over 150 dead, while according to the junta 57.
A UN international inquiry commission is investigating the circumstances of the repression and members of the panel are expected in Conakry November 25. [BO]
Most Opponents of Guinea Military Reject Power-Sharing Plan
Opposition alliance refuse regional mediator, Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore’s plan for interim government, which includes Guinea’s military ruler Captain Moussa Camara
Scott Stearns | Dakar 23 November 2009
Photo: AP
Guinea’s military leader Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, center, salutes as he stands next to Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, left, during welcoming ceremonies at the airport in Conakry, Guinea (File)
Guinea’s military leader Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, center, salutes as he stands next to Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, left, during welcoming ceremonies at the airport in Conakry, Guinea (File)
Burkinabe President Compaore wants to resolve Guinea’s political crisis with a transitional government that includes members of the military and its political opponents.
But most of the leaders of that opposition alliance say they will not take part in any interim authority that includes military ruler Captain Moussa Camara and members of the council that has run Guinea since last December’s coup.
Bah Oury, the vice president of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces, says President Compaore is not following the recommendations of leaders from the Economic Community of West African States or the International Contact Group on Guinea. Oury says the mediator’s mandate was clear: to arrange the peaceful departure of the military and establish a transitional government to resolve the crisis.
Instead of doing that, Oury says, President Compaore is proposing to give more power to the ruling military council than the council was asking for. So that is why he says civil society groups reject the mediator’s proposal.
President Compaore was appointed by ECOWAS leaders to mediate the crisis following September’s killing of at least 157 opposition demonstrators. They were protesting the expected presidential candidacy of Captain Camara when witnesses say soldiers opened fire in Conakry’s main sports stadium.
Former prime minister François Louncey Fall says the proposed transitional government rewards those responsible for that violence.
The 30-member interim authority under the Compaore plan has 10 positions for civil society, 10 positions for the ruling military council, and 10 positions for other groups that Fall believes would be close to the military.
He says taking part in that arrangement gives the opposition one-third of the power, while he says it represents a far greater portion of the population. Fall says agreeing to that government would be like promoting those responsible for the violence of September 28.
Former Prime Minister Sidya Toure says President Compaore needs to try again.
Toure says the opposition alliance is rejecting President Compaore’s proposal because it does not conform with the demands of civil society. He says there should be a new dialogue to come up with a document based more on consensus that better takes into account the views of all sides.
But not all of the military’s opponents reject President Compaore’s plan. Former prime minister Cellou Diallo says the proposal recognizes the realities of power in Conakry.
Diallo says the proposal is a good idea because if the opposition is insisting that Captain Camara leave power, it will be very complicated because Diallo says Captain Camara can not and will not leave power for many reasons. Diallo says he thinks that the opposition alliance nominating a vice president is a good idea.
Captain Camara has not announced his candidacy, but he has told his supporters he will not insult them by ignoring their demands that he run for president.
