Guinean soldiers stand guard by an armoured vehicle at the entrance to Conakry's centre, January 2007. A soldier was lynched and his body burned by raging crowds as ongoing violence claimed at least 12 more lives in the restless west African state of Guinea amid demands that the veteran president resign.
(AFP/File) |
A soldier was lynched and his body burned by raging crowds as ongoing violence claimed at least 12 more lives in the restless west African state of Guinea amid demands that the veteran president resign.
Crowds killed the soldier after he fired on demonstrators, killing two, at Kankan, 600 kilometres (360 miles) east of the capital Conakry. It was originally reported that the soldier had shot three people dead.
He was the first army fatality in the unrest which has caused at least 60 deaths in the last three weeks of violence and a general strike.
Meanwhile, the political opposition called for President Lansana Conte, 72, who has ruled for 23 years, to quit, saying the country was in a state of insurrection.
The latest explosion of violence followed the appointment Friday of a close associate of the president to the job of prime minister. The opposition and labour unions challenged the appointment, saying the new man, Eugene Camara, was too close to the president.
"Camara is not up to it. He's just a yes-man. He'll do anything Lansana Conte says," said one young demonstrator helping to set up barricades as burning tyres blocked main thoroughfares.
The unions demanded Friday that Camara immediately resign, while a spokesman for 14 opposition parties said the protests had become "an insurrection which can only end with the departure of Lansana Conte."
Young rioters looted and sometimes set alight public buildings in a number of towns in the interior of this poverty-stricken west African state, the world's leading exporter of bauxite, vital to aluminium production.
Guinea, with an area of 245,900 square kilometers (98,000 square miles) and population of 7.2 million, borders on Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Ivory Coast.
Three youths were shot by security forces in the suburbs of Bonfi and Matam on the outskirts of Conakry where barricades were set up on main roads.
In Kindia four demonstrators were killed by soldiers while at Faranah in the centre a demonstrator and a prisoner were killed by security forces, witnesses told AFP.
In Conakry a house belonging to President Joaoa Bernardo Vieira of neighbouring Guinea-Bissau was sacked, witnesses told AFP.
The new prime minister Camara quietly rose through the ranks of the Guinean administration, and is seen as a moderate.
He will have more power than his predecessors and will head the government -- a role undertaken by the president since independence from France in 1958.
After arduous negotiations between the union leaders and emissaries of the president last month, Conte agreed to give up his role as head of government.
At face value, Camara appeared to meet the criteria set by the unions, who demanded "a high-ranking competent civilian, with integrity".
But observers in Conakry saw his closeness to Conte and apparent weak personality as a liability.
Camara "is known for his faithfulness and allegiance towards Conte," said Mamadou Ba, spokesman of the grouping of 14 opposition parties.
"The president has shown that he is not ready to ... open up. He does not want to appoint somebody who is a leader," Ba told AFP.
"More than a strike, this is an insurrection which can only end with the departure of Lansana Conte (who) refuses to face up to reality," he said Saturday.
In the capital demonstrators piled up tables and tree trunks Saturday to form barricades blocking main thoroughfares. Tyres were set alight and youngsters hurled stones.
"President Conte doesn't give a damn about us," one youngster said. "We're going to get him out now."
"Conte hasn't come up with what people want and this new prime minister is just a provocation," said another.
Conte seized power in a coup in 1984, on the death of founding president Sekou Toure.
