Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Conakry (Agenzia Fides) - “We have no confirmation that among those who were suppressed in the protest on September 28 were former Liberian rebels of Ulimo and the NPFL,” Agenzia Fides was told by sources from the Church in Guinea.
According to the press, among the soldiers that fired on protesters on September 28 in the Conakry Stadium, were English-speakers, implying that they were from the forested area of Guinea, on the border with Liberia and Sierra Leon, which between 1999-2001 was involved in a bloody war on the border, between the Guinean Army and members of guerrilla groups from Liberia and Sierra Leon. Among them were the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), a group that fought against the then President of Liberia Charles Taylor. The ULIMO was supported by the deceased Guinean President Lansana Conte, who had to deal with the attacks on his country coming from the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), Taylor's group, some of whose members were from the forested region of Guinea.
At the end of the Liberian civil war (2003), the Guinean forest region was left with around 10,000 people from the two groups. Some of these men (who had even fought in the Liberian War) later ended up becoming Security Guards of the Guinean Chief of Staff Moussa Dadis Camara, who took over in a coups in December 2008, following the death of Conte.
The demonstration on September 28 was held in the capital of Conakry by the opposition parties, to protest Camara's candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections of 2010. The military fired on the crowd, wounding at least 150 people according to the opposition, and were subjected to fierce violence, especially the women. Camara declared that the violence was caused by “uncontrollable elements.”
“Both the military and the opposition, for opposing motives, are interested in fomenting the idea that the Liberian guerrillas are responsible for the violence. The former, so that it can take distance from the massacre, making people believe that the Guinean military were not the causes of “strange uncontrollable elements.” The latter, accuses the military of using foreign mercenaries to support themselves,” Fides sources said.
While the Economic Community of the Western African States (CEDEAO) prepares for an extraordinary summit on the crisis in Guinea next week, the situation in Conakry – Fides sources say - “remains troublesome, as it seems they are trying to use the ethnic wildcard.” “In neighborhoods on the outskirts of Conakry, the slogan is now: “Let's get rid of the coastal Guinea and forested Guinea. Now is the time of the Peuls.” The Peuls are the richest and most intellectual of the country, but until now they have been marginalized from political life. There is, therefore, a real risk that the political conflict may use ethnicity as a weapon to rise to power. It is a troubling development,” Fides sources concluded. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 12/10/2009)
