GUINEA: Union Leader, Rabiatou Serah Diallo, to Head Transition Council

Rabiatou Serah Diallo

 

Guinea union leader to head transition council

 (AFP) – 16 hours ago

 CONAKRY — Guinea’s interim president has named a union leader to head a council charged with managing a transition from military to civilian rule, a decree read on state radio and television said Monday.

“Rabiatou Serah Diallo, secretary general of Guinea’s National Workers Confederation, has been named president of the National Transition Council,” the decree signed by interim leader General Sekouba Konate declared.

The body will be composed of 101 Guineans from civil society, political parties, religious groups as well as members of the ruling junta’s council.

They will have legislative responsibilities since the National Assembly was dissolved in December 2008 after the military seized power in a coup following the death of longtime strongman Lansana Conte.

Serah Diallo gained international attention in 2007 as a leading figure in protests against the Conte regime.

Guinea is involved in a delicate transition process after an accord was reached on January 15 that would pave the way for the west African nation to emerge from its political crisis and hold elections in June.

The election will be the first democratic presidential poll in Guinea since 1958 and come after half a century of autocratic regimes, initially civilian and then military.

ICC Prosecutor, Bensouda, Coming To Guinea This Month Regarding Sept. 28 Massacre

EXCLUSIVE: ICC to probe Guinea massacre

Posted on Saturday 6 February 2010 – 15:30

Saikou Jammeh, AfricaNews reporter in Banjul, Gambia
The deputy chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Fatou Bensouda has revealed she will pay a visit to Guinea Conakry somewhere this month to investigate the recent civilian massacre allegedly perpetuated by the Junta.

Speaking to AfricaNews Bensouda said the ICC is keen to take action on the bloodbath but must be there in advance to gather enough evidence.

“There is an intrinsic link between justice and peace,” she said, “by putting an end to impunity for the perpetrators of most serious crimes, the court can and will contribute to the prevention of such crimes, thus having a deterrent effect.”

The resource-rich West African state hit world news headlines after security forces surrounded the main stadium of peaceful protesters and opened fire on them.

An in-depth investigation into the matter by Human Rights Watch uncovered evidences of widespread sexual violence committed by security personnel.

About 150-200 people were confirmed dead, according to the group’s report. That number far exceeds the official toll of 57 dead and over 1000 injured.

Bensouda pointed out that the ICC has built a global community with new technologies, where communities and people that are isolated before are today communicating at a “tremendous speed”.

“Global crimes, that transcend borders; affects entire regions and continent, but with no global government to fight it, and with poor national institutional backing, hence ICC and the Rome Statute creates global governance without government but with global international law and courts,” she further stated.

Bensouda called for strong and consistent diplomatic and political action by all actors to ensure compliance with the courts decision.

“When it comes to perpetrators of massive crimes, there should be only one answer: the full and transparent implementation of the law”, she added.

The ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo had in a statement last year confirmed that the situation in Guinea is under preliminary examination in order to determine whether crimes falling under the court’s jurisdiction have been perpetrated.

Religious Tension Ignites in Guinea

UPDATED ON:
Sunday, February 07, 2010
02:47 Mecca time, 23:47 GMT
 

Religious tension ignites in Guinea

Clashes between Christians and Muslims in eastern Guinea have left one person dead and two missing, police have said.

Another 29 people were injured in the city of Nzerekore on Friday and Saturday, they said.

Calm had been restored by Saturday evening, although sporadic gunfire was still heard in the city.

Police ordered a curfew from 7:30pm to 5am after groups of Christians and Muslims had been attacking each other with stones and clubs.

The fighting apparently started after a group of Muslims gathered to open up a mosque which was closed down by authorities late last month because of tensions between the religious communities.

Tensions in Nzerekore, a Christian enclave in the mainly Muslim country, rose last week after a row between a Christian woman and a group of Muslim men.

Some residents said the men had stopped the woman from using a road blocked for prayers and that the woman responded by hitting one of them with a shoe.

Other reports said she was accused of wearing indecent dress.

On Friday Christian youths took their revenge by trying to disturb prayers by driving motorbikes near a mosque.

Christians make up around eight per cent of the population in the West African nation.

Guinea Massacre: Toumba Diakite Says Ready to Go Before International Commission or Court

Toumba Diakite

 

Man blamed for Guinea massacre: Ready for trial
 

The Associated Press
Friday, February 5, 2010; 8:07 AM

CONAKRY, Guinea — The man who tried to assassinate Guinea’s now-exiled junta leader and has been blamed for a September massacre says he’s ready to face international justice.

Lt. Abubakar “Toumba” Diakite, in an interview with Radio France International aired Friday, said he was only following orders and is willing to go in front of an international commission or court.

He also asked Guinea’s transitional leader to pardon him.

An investigative commission in Guinea on Tuesday blamed Diakite and a group of soldiers from the presidential guard for the massacre.

Diakite, who remains in hiding, has said he shot junta leader Moussa “Dadis” Camara in the head because Camara wanted him to take the blame for the massacre that killed at least 156 people.

Guinea’s New Gov’t.: Will the Army Take a Back Seat?

“Some of the women who were raped and beaten during the September protests are still getting telephone calls from military types telling them to be quiet or be killed.”

 Guinea’s new government
Will the army take a back seat?

Though a post-coup peace deal has been done, it is far from certain to last

Feb 4th 2010 | CONAKRY | From The Economist print edition

A YEAR after an army captain pulled off a coup over the still-warm body of the military dictator who had run Guinea for 24 years, the country is being run by a civilian. Jean-Marie Doré will supposedly hold power until a proper election within six months. But Guinea has never had a genuine poll before, nor any tradition of civilian rule. Moreover, the transitional government that the 70-year-old Mr Doré has been asked to form is to include a big batch of soldiers. No one is betting on a smooth path to true multi-party democracy.

Guinea has been shaken since President Lansana Conté died just before Christmas in 2008. His coup-making successor, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, soon faced opposition. In September his troops massacred at least 157 protesters in a stadium in the capital, Conakry. Three months later, one of his own soldiers tried to kill him, causing him to fly to Morocco for medical treatment.

For the past month he has been in nearby Burkina Faso, whose president, Blaise Compaoré, along with Captain Camara and a Guinean general who had been standing in for the captain as Guinea’s leader, agreed that Mr Doré should take over as the country’s temporary ruler at the head of a unity government pending a general election in the summer. General Sekouba Konaté, who had been running the show in Captain Camara’s absence, agreed to a proper election and promised to revamp the army.

But scepticism remains strong. Some of the women who were raped and beaten during the September protests are still getting telephone calls from military types telling them to be quiet or be killed. Some of the opposition people arrested last year seem to have disappeared. Bribery remains rampant, with soldiers routinely demanding payment at checkpoints.

Under the deal in Burkina Faso, ten members of a new, 30-member government will be from Captain Camara’s military junta. Though Mr Doré, a maverick, has campaigned in the past for human rights, he has also served as a go-between for the captain and an opposition front known as the Forces Vives, which will also be represented in the unity government. Mr Doré and the captain both hail from the same minority tribe, known as the Forestières, who inhabit the country’s remote eastern region. Some members of the Forces Vives think Mr Doré has quietly been giving the captain advice. He has also been evasive about whether he will seek the presidency permanently, though the Burkina Faso agreement was originally said to ban any member of the transitional government, including Mr Doré and General Konaté, from running in the promised summer election. The captain is supposed to stay in exile.

But soldiers apparently loyal to him still lord it over Conakry’s streets. “There are uncontrollable elements in the army,” says Mouctar Diallo, who heads another opposition group, the New Democratic Forces. He hopes General Konaté will restrain Captain Camara’s diehard military supporters, who plainly do not want a proper election in the summer—or ever.

When members of the feared Red Berets, an army unit hitherto loyal to the captain, were asked if they would back a civilian government, they replied that they would obey their commanders. General Konaté recently arrested Colonel Moussa Keita, a disciple of Captain Camara, who has been accused of planning to charter a plane to bring his man back from exile, presumably to reinstate him as president.

Guinea Junta “Investigation” of Itself Recommends Sept. 28 Killers Be Tried in Guinea and Amnesty for Opposition Leaders

   

National Inquiry Wants Suspected Killers of Demonstrators Tried in Guinea

Scott Stearns | Dakar 03 February 2010

Guinea’s national inquiry into September’s killing of opposition demonstrators says all suspects should be tried before Guinean courts.  A U.N. investigation says they should be brought before the International Criminal Court.

Guinea’s national commission of inquiry is recommending a general amnesty for opposition leaders who it says broke the law September 28 by holding an illegal demonstration against the expected presidential candidacy of military ruler Captain Moussa Dadis Camara.

Demonstrators at the national stadium were attacked by members of Guinea’s military.  Human-rights officials say at least 157 people were killed and dozens of women raped.

The national commission of inquiry has absolved Captain Camara of responsibility for that violence because he was not at the stadium.  It blames the former head of the presidential guard, who tried to assassinate Captain Camara in December because he says the captain was trying to blame him for the killing.

A U.N. investigation says there is sufficient evidence to presume direct criminal responsibility by Captain Camara, other members of the ruling military council and the former head of the presidential guard.  It recommends International Criminal Court action against those responsible.

Guinea’s national commission of inquiry says those suspected of leading the violence should be tried in Guinean courts.

Commission Chairman Sirman Kouyate says considering the country’s new transitional government, the commission recommends that those suspected of murder, rape, arson, and stealing weapons be identified and prosecuted under Guinean jurisdiction.

Corinne Dufka heads West Africa operations for Human Rights Watch.

“A country is obliged and responsible for holding accountable its citizens who would be responsible and implicated in the types of crimes that we saw in September,” said Corinne Dufka. “So an international court is designed to be a court of last resort only if and when a country is incapable or refuses or there is a lack of political will to hold individuals responsible.”

The U.N. recommendation for International Criminal Court action was made before Guinea’s new interim authority, at a time when Dufka says it looked unlikely that Captain Camara would allow an unbiased trial, especially as he might be one of the suspects.

“The political situation has changed and the Guinean government has pledged to hold accountable those responsible,” she said. “Now, if they refuse to do so, then in that case international options including the International Criminal Court can be considered.”

The transitional authority led jointly by Captain Camara’s defense minister and a new civilian prime minister has vowed to punish those responsible for the violence.  As neither the U.N. inquiry nor the national commission’s findings have the force of law, Dufka says it is time for a thorough criminal investigation.

“The justice ministry, the Guinean police need to begin a proper investigation into what happened with a view to holding those most responsible accountable,” said Dufka. “Their investigation should be open to the highest levels, that is including the criminal responsibility of erstwhile CNDD president Dadis Camara.”

The French ambassador to the United Nations, Gerard Araud, says the were clearly crimes against humanity committed September 28.  He says the Security Council should express its political support for both Guinea’s domestic prosecution of those crimes as well as the ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court.

Government Wrangling Delays Guinea Power Transition

 

By Saliou Samb and Mark John

February 3, 2010

CONAKRY/DAKAR (Reuters) – Squabbling over top jobs in Guinea’s caretaker government is delaying a transition to civilian rule and raising fears the West African state may miss its chance to shake off decades of military dictatorship.

Opposition veteran Jean-Marie Dore was last month given the task of preparing polls by mid-year after the wounding of junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara in a December 3 assassination bid raised hopes that the top metals exporter could find stability.

But Dore has so far failed to present a government list and has shown signs that he sees his role as being more long-term than the purely caretaker function assigned to him in a January 15 road map under which junta leaders agreed to hand over power.

“The military need to be pushed back into the barracks — and that is not happening quickly enough,” said Richard Moncrieff, director of the Dakar-based West Africa project for the International Crisis Group think tank.

Camara secured power in a December 2008 bloodless coup after the death of longtime leader Lansana Conte and quickly seized the political initiative as Guinea’s opposition appeared bewildered by events.

Defence Minister Sekouba Konate, who assumed power from Camara after the gun attack by an ex-aide, has so far prevented further abuses by the military, parts of which stand accused of a September 28 massacre of over 150 pro-democracy marchers.

But Guinea’s civilian politicians, many of whom have only glimpsed power in the past thanks to compromises with the succession of strongmen rulers who have ruled the country since independence, are struggling to play their part.

DESIGN FAULT

The task is hardest for Dore, who as caretaker premier is obliged under the January 15 accord to create a national unity government from a politically diverse “Forces Vives” grouping of politicians, trade unionists and civil society activists that form Guinea’s opposition.

“If a party wins elections, the make-up of the government depends on the party. Me, I’ve got to satisfy those in the Forces Vives, those outside the Forces Vives and the rest. This is going to take some time,” he warned this week.

Trade union leader Rabiatou Serah Diallo, earmarked as one of two vice-premiers, is concerned she will end up with a lesser post after a decree on the government by Dore did not explicitly mention such a role, a source close to discussions said.

The same source said Diallo could secure the territorial administration ministry and thus have a key role in ensuring the elections were fair, but added no final decision had been taken.

Officials in any interim government will face the same ban as junta leaders on standing for election. While that has prompted some senior politicians to stand back for now, others hope that stipulation in the January 15 accord will be relaxed.

Dore, a French-educated lawyer in his 70s who has never served in government, has failed to categorically confirm that he will not stand in elections in what to some is a worrying reminder of Camara’s own evasiveness on that point last year.

Neighbours are waiting to see if Guinea can avoid further chaos that could unsettle the region. Investors such as metals giant RUSAL — whose Hong Kong bourse flotation last month suffered from nerves over Guinea — also crave certainty.

Human Rights Watch senior researcher Corinne Dufka urged Guinea’s political class to end the power wrangling, saying that key stepping stones towards stability such as genuine army reform depended on elections returning a viable government.

“The transition bodies should do all in their power to keep focused on elections,” she said.

Liberian President Wants Int’l. Support for Guinea – AU, UN, ECOWAS Reps. in Conakry Talking Security Reform and Elections

Liberian President Wants International Support for Guinea

Scott Stearns | Dakar 02 February 2010

Photo: AP

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, right, enters the UN Conference Hall during the closing ceremony, for the 14th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union, in Ethiopia, 02 Feb 2010

Liberia’s president says the transitional government in neighboring Guinea needs international support to hold elections in June that are meant to end more than a year of military rule. 

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says the Economic Community of West African States will help Guinea return to constitutional rule through a transitional government led jointly by the country’s acting military leader and its new civilian prime minister.

“Let me say I am very pleased in the progress that we have made in Guinea.  I am the current chair of the Manu River Union countries, which comprises Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Cote d’Ivoire.  And so I have been able to have active participation in the consultations and mediations that have led to where we are today,” she said.

President Sirleaf spoke in Ethiopia at an African Union summit that discussed Guinea.

A joint mission by the African Union, the United Nations, and the Economic Community of West Africa States is in Conakry to see how it can support security reform and new elections.

The mission is led by Senegalese General Lamine Cisse who met with Guinea’s new civilian prime minister Jean-Marie Dore to discuss the transition process.  State-run television says the men discussed how outside civilian observers can best help reform the Guinean military and when such work will begin.

Prime Minister Dore told the general the interim authority is determined to “see the dream come true” of a return to constitutional rule following the military coup that brought to power Captain Moussa Dadis Camara.

Captain Camara is in Burkina Faso recovering from being shot by the former head of the presidential guard, who says Captain Camara was trying to blame him for the killing of opposition protesters in September.

A U.N. inquiry into that violence says there are sufficient grounds for presuming direct criminal responsibility by Captain Camara and other members of the ruling military council.

The International Contact Group on Guinea is backing the transitional government.  But the group says moving forward toward a political solution should not mean impunity for those who organized September’s killing and rape of unarmed demonstrators.

Junta Absolves Camara for Massacre, ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda Due in Guinea Feb. 15

Guinea commission absolves junta chief of blame for massacre

(AFP) – 6 hours ago

CONAKRY — The president of a commission set up by Guinea’s junta to probe a massacre of opposition supporters in Conakry last year on Tuesday absolved junta chief Captain Moussa Dadis Camara of any blame.

Instead it recommended legal action against Lieutenant Aboubacar Cherif “Toumba” Diakite, an aide to the junta leader who has been on the run since he shot and seriously injured Captain Camara in an alleged assassination attempt on December 3.

Asked about the role of the junta chief and the minister for special services, Major Moussa Tiegboro Camara, commission president Siriman Kouyate said they played no part in the massacre in which the UN says more than 150 people died.

“They were responsible for nothing. It is clear that the president (Camara) never went to the stadium” where the massacre took place, he told journalists.

On September 28, troops shot, stabbed and beat up opponents of the military regime who had gathered for a rally in a Conakry’s biggest stadium. Many women were publicly raped by soldiers and some subsequently murdered.

A UN inquiry found that at least 156 people were killed or disappeared and allocated “individual criminal responsibility” to Captain Camara, his former aide de camp, and Major Camara.

The UN and Guinean and international human rights bodies accused Captain Camara and the troops involved of crimes against humanity.

A leading African human rights group called the junta report a whitewash and said the case should be referred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

“A petition to the International Criminal Court is indispensable so that Guinea can break away from impunity”, said Mamadi Kaba, chief of the Guinea branch of African Encounter for the Defense of Human Rights.

The deputy prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, is due in Conakry on February 15 to decide whether the stadium massacre is in the jurisdiction of the court.

Kaba said the junta commission had been set up with the express purpose of “whitewashing certain authorities” and had done its job.

The junta commission president Kouyate said the blame lay with Toumba, members of the presidential guard and others.

“There was Toumba Diakite, a team of Red Berets (presidential guardsmen) and other people not yet identified (who have yet to be legally pursued). There are plenty of people, it’s not just him,” he added, without giving other names.

“People should be pursued before Guinean courts because these are common law crimes,” the prosecutor said, contradicting the UN, which holds suspects should be brought before the ICC.

Unlike the UN panel, the junta’s commission found that only 58 people were killed on September 28, while five others “died on the following days in hospital”, making a total of 63.

The commission also recommended a “general amnesty” for leaders of the opposition who called for the rally in the stadium, which was to protest any plan by Captain Camara to stand in elections.

“Those who will benefit from the amnesty are the politicians who, before September 28, challenged the authorities in a certain manner,” Kouyate said. “The (transitional) prime minister (Jean-Marie Dore) is among their ranks today. So to rub salt in the wound would have complicated the situation.”

Before he was shot, Captain Camara alleged that the blame for the stadium carnage lay with the opposition leaders who had convened a banned rally.

Dore was sworn in on January 26 to head a transitional government to hold “transparent and credible elections” under an agreement with the junta, which is being run by interim president General Sekouba Konate.

Under this accord, Camara is convalescing, currently in Burkina Faso, whose President Blaise Compaore is seeking to mediate an end to 13 months of crisis caused by military rule in Guinea.

Guinea Junta Investigates Itself Regarding Massacre: 58 Died, Diakite and Red Berets Responsible, But Not Camara

Guinean Commission Report Casts Blame for Massacre

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 2, 2010

Filed at 8:25 a.m. ET

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — An investigative commission in Guinea is blaming the man who tried to assassinate the country’s junta leader for a September massacre.

Human rights groups say Guinean soldiers killed at least 156 people and raped dozens of women at the national soccer stadium.

In a report presented to Guinean authorities Tuesday, the commission said Lt. Abubakar ”Toumba” Diakite and a group of red berets from the presidential guard were responsible for the violence.

Diakite, who remains in hiding, has said that he shot junta leader Moussa ”Dadis” Camara because Camara wanted him to take the blame for the massacre.

The report Tuesday said only 58 people were killed, and that Camara, now in voluntary exile in Burkina Faso, was not responsible.