Thursday, 22 February 2007 |

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World
Posted to the web on: 21 February 2007 Presidents caution Guinea over crisis Heidi Vogt
Sapa-AP CONAKRY — The presidents of Liberia and Sierra Leone pressed Guinea’s president yesterday to find a solution to weeks of violent uprisings that west African experts say could plunge Guinea into a conflict that would destabilise the war-weary region. Two waves of violent antigovernment protests and rioting in Guinea since mid-January have left at least 115 people dead in the capital. Rights groups say dozens more have been killed in the interior of the country. President Lansana Conte declared martial law last week, saying a military crackdown was the only way to prevent civil war. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Sierra Leonean President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah flew to the Guinean capital, Conakry, to urge President Lansana Conte to “find a settlement to the Guinean crisis”, according to a statement issued by the Liberian government. Liberia and Sierra Leone are still recovering from their own cross-border conflict, a rebellion turned civil war in which drugged child soldiers hacked off peoples hands, burned villages and went on sprees of rape. The fighting stretched on for more than a decade in both countries, with Liberia only emerging from conflict in 2003 when Charles Taylor was exiled to Nigeria. A recent report issued by International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based conflict think tank, warned that a violent uprising in Guinea could throw the fragile region back into conflict. Guinea Information Minister Boubacar Diallo confirmed that the two presidents flew in yesterday morning and met with Conte at the presidential guesthouse. He did not have details on what was discussed. The violence started last month when a general strike called by union leaders over the cancellation of a corruption trial led to calls for Conte to resign. In a compromise deal, Conte agreed to share power with a prime minister. But protests erupted again last week after the president named a close ally to the post. Martial law — along with the curfew and military searches that accompany it — is set to expire on Friday.
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