Guinean police arrest a protester on September 28, 2009 in front of the biggest stadium in the capital Conakry during a protest banned by Guinea’s ruling junta. Opposition political parties, labor unions and civil society groups reacted by swiftly agreeing to proceed with the rally to protest against junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara Camara running in a presidential election. The protest was dispersed with tear gas. Speaking on national television on September 27, Interior Minister Frederic Kolie declared that ‘all demonstrations on national territory are prohibited until the national holiday on October 2.’ Getty Images
Democracy rally turns into slaughter as soldiers fire into crowds at Conakry arena
“Soldiers were firing at people and those who tried to get out (of the stadium) were caught and finished off with bayonets.”
More than 150 feared dead in Guinea stadium clashes
by Xan Rice in Nairobi and agencies in Conakry
More than 150 people are feared to have been killed after soldiers fired into a crowd of pro-democracy demonstrators at a stadium in Guinea yesterday.
Tens of thousands of people had gathered in the capital Conakry to protest against plans by the military leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, to contest the presidential election next year. Camara, who took power in a 2008 coup, earlier pledged not to run.
Police initially fired teargas in an attempt to disperse the crowd at the 25,000-seater stadium before shooting live rounds at the protesters.
“Soldiers were firing at people and those who tried to get out (of the stadium) were caught and finished off with bayonets,” Guinean human rights activist Souleymane Bah told Reuters. Police initially said 87 people had been killed but a local rights group, Guinea Human Rights Organisation, quoted hospital sources as saying that at least 157 people had been killed and 1,253 injured. That claim could not be verified.
There were reports of female protesters being stripped naked by some of the soldiers.
Opposition politician Mutarr Diallo said he witnessed soldiers raping women with rifle butts during yesterday’s protests. He was arrested during the protest but released this morning.
An Associated Press reporter said he saw halls full of wounded patients at the city’s large Donka hospital, some with bullet wounds, others who appeared to have been beaten.
Besides the dead, hundreds of people were injured and several opposition politicians were arrested. Two police stations were later set on fire, with burnt-out cars littering the deserted streets today.
The killings were strongly condemned by the UN, the EU and the African Union, which suspended Guinea’s membership after last year’s coup.
Camara told French radio yesterdaythat he was not responsible for the killings, which were reportedly carried out by his presidential guard.
“Those people who committed those atrocities were uncontrollable elements in the military,” he told Radio France International. “Even I, as head of state in this very tense situation, cannot claim to be able to control those elements in the military.”
Captain Moussa Dadis Camara (C), leader of the putschist camp, accompanied by bishop Vincent Colibaly (L) arrives at the Campa Alfa Yaya Diallo in Conakry to hold his first public meeting on December 27, 2008. Guinea’s new military junta began meetings with local people and foreign envoys as part of a charm offensive on after leading a bloodless coup. Some 1,000 representatives of political parties, trade unions, religious faiths and civil associations gathered in the open air at the junta’s base, the sprawling Campa Alfa Yaya Diallo, near Conakry’s international airport. Getty Images
Camara was at first welcomed by the population when he seized power after the death last December of President Lansana Conte, whose 24 years of corrupt and authoritarian rule had left the economy in tatters. So heavy was the influence of South American drug cartels on the government – Conte’s son Ousmane later confessed to aiding cocaine traffickers – that there were fears Guinea was turning into a narcostate.
Promising to clean up the country, Camara brought in his own eccentric style of rule. Besides sleeping most of the day and working all night, he hosted the “Dadis Show”, where he forced televised confessions out of corrupt members of the old regime.
Camara’s quirks soon became a liability and, added to the frequent abuse of power by his troops, had translated into serious political tension in recent months. His announcement that he had the right to stand in elections scheduled for January, despite earlier pledges to allow a return to civilian rule, contributed to the heavy turnout for yesterday’s protest. Many demonstrators held signs that read: “We want true democracy.”
