GUINEA: Strike resumes, violence steps up

CONAKRY, 12 February 2007 (IRIN)

Mobs looted guns from police stations in Conakry over the weekend and began blocking roads and battling riot police and soldiers in various suburbs around the capital Conakry. The groups set up dozens more roadblocks on Monday and continued running battles with security forces.

Groups have also been seen attacking cars and passers-by, IRIN correspondents in Conakry said. Shops are being looted and residents in various suburbs said their houses were being broken into.

The latest fighting comes on the first day of a resumed general strike, after President Lansana Conte failed to meet demands to appoint a prime minister who did not come from his inner circle. The previous strike was suspended on 29 January after at least 59 people were shot dead in 18 days of anti-government protests in towns and cities throughout the country.

On Monday the headquarters of Liberte FM, one of two independent radio stations in the country, was ransacked by soldiers wearing red berets which identify them as members of the presidential guard. The station went off the air by mid-morning.

Then, around midday, shots were heard from inside the main army barracks in Conakry. Soldiers were demanding salary payments and promotions, senior army officials told IRIN. The matter was quickly settled after President Lansana Conte issued an edict promoting every soldier in the country by one grade.

In riots over the weekend, the houses of at least two government ministers were looted, as were the offices and houses of local officials in the regional capitals of Nzerekore in the southeast and Labe in the country’s centre. In the regional capital of Kankan, in the east, which saw some of the largest demonstrations and worst violence outside Conakry in January, protestors fought police on Saturday and broke open the city jail.

The violence and lawlessness is unprecedented in Guinea’s recent history. Regional analysts had considered the country to be politically stable with a security force that was so repressive that Guineans would rarely make public protests.

However, union leaders started calling strikes around a year ago to protest skyrocketing inflation and plummeting standards of living.