Guinea violence toll rises
15/02/2007 08:52  - (SA)  

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Conakry, Guinea - At least 64 people have been killed in Guinea since the weekend in violent protest and during martial law in the West African country, a local human rights group said on Wednesday.

Thierno Madjou Sow, president of Conakry's League of Human Rights, said the deaths since Saturday bring his group's tally to at least 120 killed since a first general strike began in mid-January.

The weekend rioting and clashes between protesters and security forces led President Lansana Conte to declare martial law on Monday night, imposing a curfew for all but a few daylight hours and banning all public gatherings.

Sow said his group received reports of 21 deaths from gunshot wounds in Conakry's suburbs over Tuesday and Wednesday, and another 43 deaths outside the capital.

Negotiations

Meanwhile, a union leader who has called for Conte to step down urged the restart of negotiations with the government.

Opposition leaders and trade unions accuse Conte, the ailing leader who seized power over two decades ago in an army coup, of violating a power-sharing agreement and have demanded resign from power.

Rabiatou Serah Diallo, head of one of Guinea's major unions, called for negotiations with the government to recommence.

"We need to meet, we need to dialogue, we need to accept each other, we need to listen to each other," Diallo told The Associated Press by telephone. "We need, urgently, to find ourselves around the same table."

Diallo said the unions had been unable to meet among themselves or with colleagues since Friday, making it impossible for them to decide to return to negotiations.

Still, Diallo said the unions were not planning to change their demands, which they say were ignored when Conte appointed a cabinet member as prime minister Friday instead of someone outside the government.

"We stay behind our draft agreement which must be respected," she said.

She asked the international community to step in to help Guinea resolve its crisis.