Rogue State Headlines: Guinea Gov’t Says Security Forces Not Carrying Guns During March, Arrest of UFDG Opposition Youth Leader, Bailo Diallo, and South African Miner Eyeing Simandou Iron Ore Project

Government Denies Responsibility for March Shootings

The Security Minister said today that the government is not responsible for shooting opposition demonstrators because security forces were not carrying guns during the march. Six people were shot with live rounds on April 25, one died, Boubacar Diallo, 16. Note that several march participants said that police in civilian clothes infiltrated the march.

Security Minister Cisse said and later echoed by Governor of Conakry, Sekou “Resco” Camara, the government is bringing in a ballistics expert from the international area to determine the origin of the live rounds. The Guinean government has already exhibited its ability to swindle things of an international nature. UN representative, Said Djinnit found this out when the Guinean government passed off its pick for international dialogue facilitator as someone who was approved all parties . . .not. A shameless government, like Conde’s, does not announce bringing in an international ballistics expert only to have it point to its security services as the culprits.

Actually,Conde has a smorgasbord of state-sponsored forces at his disposal which he has spent a lot of time building up just for moments like opposition demonstrations. The opposition should demand that the investigation into the origin of live rounds be extended beyond the security services into Conde’s increasingly vast “irregular forces.”

Conde increasingly uses mercenaries and ethnic militias (Malinkes) trained in Angola to supplement security forces. During the march, opposition demonstrators reported that RPG Malinke militia members were evident along the perimeter of the march. A few of the injuries to opposition participants included stabbings, a preferred mode of attack by Donzos,or hunters, from the Forest region of Guinea. Before the government forces can be cleared of culpability, they have a large number of mercenaries and militiamen to check out.

UFDG Youth Leader, Bailo Diallo, Arrested

Bailo Diallo was pulled out of a taxi three days ago and taken to a police station in Matam. His condition and circumstances are not apparent. What was he arrested for? In Conde’s Guinea, being with the opposition and being a Peul, is sufficient.

South African Mining Magnate Eyes Simandou Iron Ore Project

After all the focus on BSRG for its shenanigans during the presidency of Lansana Conte to acquire mining rights associated with the Simandou iron ore project, it looks like a South African miner, Patrice Motsepe, owner of South African Rainbow Minerals likes what he sees at Simandou. Motsepe, South Africa’s first black billionaire has been in discussions with Guinean officials and states that, in addition to iron ore, he is interested in building infrastructure to go with it.

One day, we will know more about Conde’s South African connections, especially about Waymark, promises to Jacob Zuma, and the real reasons behind the Simandou drama that might lead to Motsepe’s making a move into Guinea’s world of lucrative mining. For full article: Motsepe eyes Guinea’s iron ore industry

Doubts About Guinea Election: Lack of Voting Cards, Ballot Envelopes and Trucks to Transport Suggest Interim Gov’t. Never Planned to Hold Election

Doubts growing about Sunday election in Guinea

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI (AP) – 2 hours ago

CONAKRY, Guinea — Only days before Guinea’s historic presidential runoff election, hundreds of thousands of voting cards have not yet arrived and the trucks needed to transport materials to distant villages are still idling at a warehouse in the capital.

The man initially tasked with overseeing Sunday’s vote also has died in Paris, where he had been rushed for treatment, a family friend said Tuesday.

The confluence of disorder and bad luck means this weekend’s long-awaited vote will most likely be delayed again, a move that is sure to escalate tension in this West African nation. Over the weekend, street brawls between supporters of rival political parties left one dead and 54 wounded.

“It is highly improbable that the election will be held this Sunday,” said Boubacar Diallo, the commission’s director of planning. “It is a purely technical problem.”

On Monday, Guinea’s prime minister declined to directly answer whether the election would in fact be delayed. However, he added: “We will not hold an election if this will end in a fistfight.”

Many have hoped that the upcoming vote will mark a turning point for the troubled, mineral-rich nation that has known only authoritarian rule since winning independence from France in 1958. The first round of voting in June was met with excitement, but the multiple delays since then have cast a pall over the runoff.

Leading presidential contender Cellou Dalein Diallo accuses the government of purposely delaying the vote in order to give the No. 2 finisher Alpha Conde a chance to catch up in the polls.

Guinea-based election expert Elizabeth Cote of the International Foundation for Election Systems says that political squabbles inside the commission have distracted the body from getting ready for the historic vote.

Those disputes include arguments over who should have replaced the ailing head of the commission, Ben Sekou Sylla, whose death was announced Tuesday. Sylla was one of two officials charged with vote tampering during the first presidential poll in June. He was sentenced last week to one year in prison.

Guinea had multiple elections during the 24-year rule of autocrat Lansana Conte, but because the polls were openly rigged until his death two years ago no one gave much thought to the mechanics of the vote, Cote said.

It was only after the first round of the current presidential race in June that election authorities realized the flaws in the system, including the fact that there were not enough polling stations.

Between June and September, the commission spent weeks mapping more than 1,600 new polling centers, a time-consuming process that meant that other tasks fell by the wayside, Cote said.

For example, the envelopes in which voters must place their ballots were supposed to be printed in Sweden. Diallo says they have not yet been ordered because the financing fell through. His staff is due to meet this week with another vendor in neighboring Senegal, but even if they agree on a price, he says it is unlikely the envelopes will be ready in time for Sunday.

Voting cards for roughly one-tenth of the electorate are also still with a printer in South Africa, he said.

And even if the trucks carrying voting materials were to leave Guinea’s capital first thing Tuesday, they most likely will not reach the rain-soaked interior of the country in time for Sunday’s vote, where major towns are several days by road and some remote polling stations can only be reached on foot.

Meanwhile, campaigning has remained suspended following the weekend pre-election violence.

At party headquarters, Cellou Dalein Diallo’s supporters spent Monday in plastic lawn chairs planning what they would do if the election was again delayed. Diallo got 44 percent of the vote during the first round, and his supporters are convinced that he will win the election in a landslide against Conde, who got only 18 percent.

“If (Prime Minister) Jean-Marie Dore tries to delay the election one more time, he won’t be able to sleep anywhere in Guinea,” said Ibrahima Balde, 39, as the group of young men surrounding him erupted in applause.

Associated Press Writer Boubacar Diallo contributed to this report.

Senior Guinea Electoral Commission Official Condemns Fraud Conviction of Commission’s President

Guinea electoral official condemns colleagues conviction
11/09/10 22:36 GMT

A senior Guinea electoral commission official condemned the fraud conviction of the commission’s president, as several people were hurt Saturday during scuffles between the rival presidential candidates.

“It’s a national disgrace,” Thierno Seydou Bayo, the National Independent Election Commission’s (CENI) head of information, told AFP, after the conviction of CENI’s chief and its head of planning.

Bayo, who was speaking after an extraordinary meeting of the commission, said the convictions were part of moves to force the postponement of the presidential runoff.

A prosecutor announced Friday that CENI chief Ben Sekou Sylla and his head of planning, Boubacar Diallo, had been sentenced to a year in prison for fraud committed during the first round of voting in June.

Both men were tried in their absence and plan to appeal, according to legal sources.

The convictions came less than two weeks before the September 19 presidential runoff between former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo and veteran opposition figure Alpha Conde.

Diallo won 43.69 percent in the June first round vote and Alpha Conde took 18.25 percent.

Conde’s Rally for the Guinean People (RPG) party accused Sylla and Diallo of having manipulated the first-round voting records.

On Friday, an aide to Conde, RPG administrative secretary Mohamed Diane, told AFP that: “The leadership of the CENI must be changed.”

Bayo told AFP: “It is the whole of CENI that is being targetted.

“They want … to make us leave so the vote does not take place on September 19.”

He added: “There are people who don’t want to go to the elections, or have no interest in going to the elections, so they are doing everything to divert us (from them).

“Let those who don’t want to go to the elections say so…” he added.

In the capital Conarky meanwhile, 24 people were hurt during clashes between supporters of Conde and Diallo, a spokesman for Diallo’s party said Saturday.

The violence broke out in three separate districts of the city, said an official of the Union of Democratic Forces in Guinea (UDFG).

The rival groups threw stones at each other until the police and paramilitary gendarmes intervened, said the official.

There was no independent confirmation of the casualties.

More than three million Guineans, 77 percent of registered voters, took part in June in Guinea’s first democratic poll since independence from France in 1958.

The impoverished west African state has known decades of autocratic or military rule, and is currently led by a military junta headed by General Sekouba Konate.

Most of the political parties claimed voting irregularities and fraud in the first round and the supreme court threw out the votes of two districts of the capital Conakry and three citi