Dadis is the name of Captain Camara, the military man who seized power after the death of the dictator Lansana Conte on December 24th 2008. After the coup, Camara said he would organise free elections within two years, and he promised that no one from the junta would participate. However, tensions have risen in the country after Camara suggested that he could run after all.
People responded to the opposition’s call to contest the possibility of a military candidature to the elections, scheduled for early 2010. They gathered in the stadium despite the junta’s interdiction. There they suffered a harsh military suppression.
International media reports 157 deaths and more than 1200 people injured, while Guinean government has stated that most victims were crushed as the crowd stormed the stadium doors. Several residents of Conakry told IRIN (UN Integrated Regional Information Networks) they saw soldiers breaking into shops and forcing their way into homes, stealing money and other belongings.
Former Prime Minister Sidya Touré told the newspaper Le Monde that he saw women being raped by soldiers in the stadium, also with guns and bayonets, information confirmed by many witnesses. Touré was participating in the peaceful demonstration. He suffered head wounds and was arrested during the protests, together with other politicians, like Cellou Dalein Diallo, the leader of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG).
They were released on Tuesday, and Touré’s home, also used as opposition party headquarters, was ransacked. CNN reports that militaries took the microphone and recorder from a Radio France Internationale (RFI) journalist, before shoving him to the ground. According to RFI, Camara declared that he is open to start an investigation on what happened together with the UN, but this investigation should include the events of January 2007 [see the article “The international community preoccupied” on Afrika.no].
International reactions
The African Union and the CEDEAO condemned the events, and asked Dadis Camara to renounce running for the next elections. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon condemned the use of force. The UK and US declared the use of force against civilians shocking and shaming. France, following the strong repression, suspended the military cooperation they had with the coup junta.
However, as reported by BBC, “analysts say international bodies have little leverage, as Guinea is a resource-rich, wealthy nation enjoying heavy investments from foreign mining firms”. Paul Melly told the BBC “that Guinea's former ruler, Lansana Conte, survived years of aid suspension from the EU without caving in to demands for political reform”. Guinea is rich in diamonds, gold and iron, and has half the world's reserves of bauxite, the material used to make aluminium. Despite that, Guineans are among the poorest in the world, as its ruling elite incessantly pillaged the country since the independence from France in 1958.
The army
Guinea’s army enjoyed total impunity already from the last years of the Conté regime, as showed by the unpunished massacre of early 2007, reminds RFI. Impunity spread under Camara’s junta, as there is no counter power against it. Most of the military corps show indiscipline and lack of respect to the superiors, revealing a limited capacity of the officers to have full control over heavily armed men. This situation was confirmed by a military interviewed by RFI, who added that militaries like him were forced to choose between massacring the civilians or getting killed. There is a very limited trust in the military, and people might arm themselves out of fear, a civilian declared to the press.
Nevertheless, despite the fear, the deaths, the wounds and the rapes, Guineans declare they are ready to fight for the freedom they have been craving for so long now.
Main sources: Irin, BBC, CNN, RFI, All Africa, Associated Press
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