Guinea: "massacre" and barbarian scenes in Conakry

Moussa Dadis Camara

CONAKRY - The military junta in Guinea was accused Tuesday of provoking a "massacre" during the repression of a demonstration the previous day by the security forces who killed dozens of people and delivered scenes of barbarism, including rape, witnesses said.

•      The opposition has reported at least 128 dead and a police record of 87 people killed during the repression of opponents gathered tens of thousands in the « 28-September stadium » in Conakry.
  
      The abuses continued Tuesday with at least one teenager killed by soldiers, witnesses said in Conakry, where they could hear sporadic shooting and where the police were deployed in strength.
  
      "There are already 70 dead at the Ignace Deen Hospital, 58 at Donka hospital," said the opposition party and former Prime Minister of Guinea Sydia Toure, the Union of Republican Forces (UFR).
  
      The death toll could be higher, several sources - including the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the organization of the Guinean Human Rights (OGDH) - has accused the military of having collected body conceal the true number.
  
       The junta wants to conceal "the magnitude of the massacre," said the Department, that the demonstrators were "trapped" once locked in the stadium.
  
      Opponents gathered Monday in the stadium to express their opposition to any candidacy for president in January of the junta leader, Captain Dadis Moussa Camara, who came to power nine months ago.
  
      The police fired into the crowd and several sources have accused them of having engaged then in real scenes of barbarity.
  
      "Women have been raped by the praetorian guard of Dadis Camara near the stadium where the crowd had made an appointment," said UFR.
  
      Another opponent, Mouctar Diallo, said he witnessed the rape by soldiers in an interview with Radio France Internationale (RFI).
  
      "There have been women undressed, soldiers were entering their guns into the women sexes," he said.
  
      "They raped women in public, soldiers were firing everywhere and I saw people falling. And they used real bullets," he said, accusing the "presidential guard" and police".
  
      These abuses will continue Tuesday, according to NGOs and witnesses.
  
      "We have some very disturbing reports of women detained in military and police camps who are raped," said Mamadi Kaba, president of the Guinean branch of the African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights (RADDHO). "The military also came in neighborhoods, looting properties and raping women," he added.
  
      "The abuses continue in neighborhoods, perpetrated by the military. Even if there is nobody in the street, they shoot in the air, looted shops and beat people," said a resident.
  
       In an interview on Monday evening to RFI the junta leader, who until now came to power without bloodshed, said he was "sorry".
  
      "It's unfortunate, it's dramatic. Very frankly speaking, I am very sorry, very sorry," he said.
  
      The head of the Raddho said for his part that "many military and police do not agree" with the current repression.
  
      Three opposition leaders, wounded and arrested Monday, could return home. These are former heads of government Sydia Toure, Francois Fall and Mouctar Diallo. The total number of arrests was not known Tuesday.
  
      After Paris and Washington, the Secretary General of UN Ban Ki-moon, the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU) and Dakar condemned the violence and called for calm.
      
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.