Another Coup Government Consolidated in Africa

The prospects for a democratic election in Guinea in January have all but disappeared after the slaughter in Conakry on Monday. While Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, the military ruler of the country, has not yet said for certain that he will run for president in January, this is a highly likely event. Camara took over the country in a coup last December after the death from illness of the country’s former president, Lansana Conté, saying that he planned on holding a democratic transition and promising that he would not himself run for president in the subsequent elections.

In August 2009, apparently in response to his followers’ demands, Camara said that he “could not rule out” the possibility of running. On September 28, 50,000 democracy activists gathered in the large public stadium in the capital to protest this apparent renege. They were met by soldiers who shot live ammunition into the crowd, bayoneted protesters, and raped women. In all, it is estimated that 157 people are dead and 1,253 wounded. The death count is hard to verify, however. Part of the reason is that Guinea is predominantly Muslim, so the deceased are buried quickly. The biggest reason, though, is that the army has kidnapped bodies out of the stadium and out of the hospital morgues to avoid a count. On the day of the violence, media were able to count 57 dead bodies in the hospital morgue; this is the only number the government will admit to (since it has already been verified). They’re also only admitting to four people having died from gunshot wounds. The rest are said to have been trampled. Eyewitness accounts seem to contradict this. In addition to stealing bodies from the morgues, army personnel have abducted women who are being treated for rape-related injuries and taken them to unknown locations. Despite multiple witnesses to some truly heinous sexual assaults, the army has stayed quiet on this issue.

Camara has banned all “subversive meetings” for an indefinite period, which will severely hamper any opposition activity. He claims that Monday’s activities were the fault of “uncontrollable” elements in the military and denies personal responsibility. He has even declared a national day of mourning and visited victims in the hospital. Yet on Tuesday the army was heavily deployed around the capital, and soldiers killed three more people for being in the streets. They also fired rounds into the air to intimidate residents.

It is certainly possible that Camara has a tenuous hold on the military. He is just a captain, and has never had real military experience beyond peacekeeping in Sierra Leone. But he has a reputation as a ringleader in the army, having led a mutiny in 2007 and a wage riot in 2008. But whatever his real position in the military apparatus, it is clear that the army does not have any immediate plans to leave power and turn control over to the opposition.