GUINEA: Government tasked to address impunity

CONAKRY, 24 April 2007 (IRIN)

An international human rights group has called on the government of Guinea to take concrete measures to hold security forces accountable for killings, beatings and other abuses linked to strike-related protests in January and February.

In its report, “Dying for Change: Brutality and Repression by Guinean Security Forces in Response to a Nationwide Strike”, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday documented how Guinean security forces “brutally repressed” demonstrations across the country.

At least 129 people died in the violence and more than 1,700 were wounded, according to the report, which is based on interviews with 115 victims and witnesses. They said security forces fired directly into crowds of unarmed demonstrators.

“Scores of Guineans, many of them mere bystanders to the demonstrations, were severely beaten and robbed at gunpoint by security forces, often in their own homes,” the report said.

For the first time in Guinea’s post-independence history tens of thousands of people took to the streets to demand better governance in January and February. At one point they called for longtime ruler Lansana Conte to step down and only relented after labour leaders negotiated an end to the standoff that led to the installation of a new prime minister, Lansana Kouyate. He was chosen by the president from four candidates approved by the unions.

Although calm has returned to Guinea, those who were caught up in the violence continue to relive the terror.

“At night, around 8 p.m., a soldier going after a young man passed by me. He then threatened to kill me before convincing me that he wouldn’t hurt me if I accepted to ‘understand’ him,” a young woman identified as M.B. told IRIN recently. “He forced me for his dirty need without a condom. I struggled in vain.”

HRW said the attacks on demonstrators appeared to be a well-organised operation.

“Guinean security forces beat, robbed, threatened and arbitrarily arrested trade union and other civil society leaders, as well as journalists” the report said. “Scores of other Guineans, including children, were killed or wounded by undisciplined and reckless fire.”

CLICK to read an IRIN interview with the family of a child killed by security forces

The government had vowed to investigate the abuses and created a national commission of inquiry including representatives from the Ministry of Justice, civil society, trade unions and the Ministry of Defense. But Guinea’s bar association and the country’s main human rights group, the Guinean Organisation for the Defense of Human Rights (OGDH), declined to participate in any investigative body established by the government.

“The presumed authors of these crimes are not well placed to carry out the investigation of these acts,” said Thierno Madjiou Sow, OGDH president.

Conte agreed to sweeping pay rises for the military in March following a mass promotion in February, which observers said was tantamount to rewarding bad behaviour. In addition, each soldier receives a sack of rice each month for a quarter of the price that other Guineans pay.

Under the new prime minister, a new minister of justice created a panel including judges and lawyers appointed by the bar association to look at the possibility of drafting a statute to create an independent judicial mechanism to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the abuses in January and February.

“At some point they will have to present [the statute] to the government and National Assembly to be voted on,” said HRW Guinea researcher Dustin Sharp. “But it seems like at least initially the new team... is more sincere in its desire to put in place a commission that can actually do its job.”

Whether the action will go further than the National Assembly remains to be seen, analysts said. The legislature is dominated by Conte’s ruling Unity and Progress Party.

“While there are some really good minded people… there are a lot of countervailing forces in Guinea,” Sharp said. “It is certain the violence cannot be attributed to a bunch of bad apples in the lower ranks of security forces. It’s pretty clear that things went higher than that in the government.”

“Things are still very tenuous and the level of anger and the possibility of an explosion remains very real,” Sharp said.