Guinea general strike met with martial law

Guinean President Lansana Conte declared martial law on Feb. 12 amid mounting political unrest across the African country and calls for the ailing 72-year-old to step down. The order imposes a 20-hour-a-day curfew and allows police to conduct house to house searches without warrants. A fresh bout of violence erupted when Conte named a close ally as prime minister, and unions said the appointment violated the power-sharing deal that ended the strike. A senior humanitarian source, who asked not to be identified, said at least 30 people had been killed and 245 injured during the past week, almost all civilians. In total over 125 people have been killed by Guinea security forces since the general strike against Conte's rule was declared in early January. Union leaders in Guinea say they will not enter talks with the government until emergency powers imposed by Conte are relaxed. One union leader, Rabiatou Serah Diallo, said a meeting with the government had been canceled for the time being. "We asked for the lifting of martial law, security for union members, an end to night house searches and the carnage," he told the French news agency Agence France-Presse. "Hundreds of people have been arrested at night over the last few days, generally by order of the ruling party's leaders," said Ben Sekou Sylla, president of the national council for civil society organizations. Guinea's military reportedly arrested 300 opposition supporters in a series of raids during the night of Feb. 16 and took them to military camps. "More than half of our national and regional representatives have been arrested or been forced to go into exile in other towns," stated opposition politician Mohamed Diane. Human rights groups complain that soldiers have been given widespread powers and many civilians have been subjected to harassment by soldiers. "Under the guise of reestablishing law and order, they're acting like common criminals–beating, robbing and brutalizing the population they're supposed to protect," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director for Human Rights Watch (HRW). Guinean Justice Minister Alseny Rene Gomez rejected calls for an international inquiry into the violence, saying the West African state had already opened its own inquiry. "We cannot entrust something to the international community that we can do ourselves and that we have already started to do since January," Gomez told Reuters, adding that Guinea might appeal for foreign help in specialist areas like ballistics. Guineans say uniformed soldiers have been looting, raping and beating people at random in most of Conakry's sprawling city's suburbs. "The boss made reference to President Lansana Conte and gave us the order to shoot anyone provocative, so whoever provokes me, I will shoot him without any hesitation," said a Kalashnikov-toting soldier in the main street outside the Donka hospital in central Conakry. Guineans struggling to live in Conakry, the rundown capital, say "provocations" can include staring, wearing a desirable pair of shoes, or simply being in the wrong place when the jeeps of soldiers careening around the city start shooting their guns in the air. "When I left the house, a soldier saw me straight away. I ran away but he trapped me in a corner and beat me with his fists. When I fell down he went through my pockets," Conakry resident Alseny Bah, 21, said on Feb. 14. Bah lost his cell phone and the equivalent of US $8 in cash. The soldier even took his worn Nike running shoes. In the Hafea district in the east of the city, Aminata, 30, didn't even leave her house but still got caught up in the violence, according to her sister, who gave her name as Djenadob. "We heard trucks pulling up outside and shouting, then shooting started," Djenadob said. The girls hid inside their wardrobe, but when the shooting stopped Aminata was slumped, bleeding. Neighbours said later the soldiers were shooting into the air as a warning to people not to come outside. One of the bullets pierced the flimsy tin walls of the sisters' shack and clipped Aminata. The family borrowed a neighbour's car and risked the long drive to the city's only functioning hospital. Aminata's condition was unclear. Guineans say they are far more afraid of the army than the regular police or gendarmes. "It's the army that kills," said a 33-year-old journalist, who did not want to be named. "We have much more reason to fear them than the police or gendarmes." HRW has previously accused the Guinean security services of torture and murder and said there is a "culture of impunity" compounded by a weak judicial system. Guinea's private radio stations had been broadcasting dramatic first-hand accounts of violent street clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces. But since Conte decreed martial law non-government broadcasters are either off the air or playing innocuous music as media freedom becomes another casualty of the military crackdown. The martial law decree gave the military powers to control the press and state broadcaster RTG has transmitted warnings from the army chief that looters and troublemakers will be shot. No newspapers are being published and although at least one foreign-based Guinean news website continues to put out news, internet cafes in the riot-hit capital have been closed. Foreign journalists have sometimes found it difficult to move freely.