Guinea’s death toll rises to 157

  1. Posted on Wednesday 30 September 2009 - 09:00
    KingsleyKobo
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    Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
    As death toll of the fierce repression on demonstrators in Guinea rises to 157, the military government said it is launching an immediate investigation into who ordered security forces to open fire on the protesters. Protesters gathered at the stadium to say no to the participation of the military leader in the upcoming election.
    Guinea map
    In an interview with Radio France Internationale (RFI), Guinean head of state, Moussa Dadis Camara, said he still could not explain what really happened at the stadium meeting, where about 50,000 opposition sympathisers gathered on Monday to say no to his eventual candidacy in the forthcoming presidential elections.

    Camara acknowledged that his boys (the soldiers who shot into the crowd) were rough and uncontrollable, but that much of the deaths were out of stampede and asphyxiation and not bullets, as widely reported by both local and international media.

    Local human rights groups and individuals across the country are trying to situate responsibility for Monday’s tragedy. Some accuse the military junta for the bloody repression; others say the opposition leaders faulted by allowing their militants to participate in a banned rally knowing well what Guinean security forces are capable of doing (in reference to 2007 repression that killed 180 people under former President Lansana Conté).

    French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Paris is immediately suspending military cooperation with the government in Conakry and is reviewing its entire bilateral aid package.

    Kouchner said the European Union will meet Wednesday to look at additional measures that could be taken swiftly, particularly against individual members of the ruling military council.

    U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration condemns the “brazen and inappropriate use of force against civilians.”

    The Economic Community of West African States wants an international inquiry into the violence that will include the African Union and the United Nations Commission for Human Rights.

    The Interior Ministry statement said Captain Camara on Tuesday expressed his condolences to the families of those killed in the violence and visited some of the injured at two hospitals.

    But some sources say soldiers have already collected bodies themselves rather than allow them to be counted at public morgues in a bid to hide the accurate numbers from the media.

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