Guinea was tense yesterday after deadly post-election violence as the defeated presidential candidate claimed massive voting fraud in the polls intended to end five decades of authoritarian rule.
Several observers condemned the security forces for excessive force as the violence claimed two more lives on Tuesday, bringing to four the number of deaths in two days.
Dozens more were injured in an atmosphere fraught with tension over the results of the Nov. 7 election.
PHOTO: AFP
Opposition leader Alpha Conde won the run-off poll with 52.52 percent of the votes, but his rival, former Guinean prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, who scored 47.48 percent, maintains he is the rightful victor, claiming massive voting fraud.
He has appealed to the Supreme Court, which must confirm the election result.
On Tuesday, the day of the Muslim festival Eid al-Adha, Conde carried out a “tour of thanks,” greeting singing and cheering crowds in three Conakry suburbs where he had topped the polls.
At the same time, the atmosphere in Diallo strongholds was tense after violent clashes. He accused security forces of “savage brutality” against his supporters and members of his Fulani ethnic group.
“I launched an appeal for calm [on Monday night] to show that peace and security don’t have a price,” he said. “But security forces continued to murder and repress with savage brutality.”
He accused security forces of having been “trained to attack one ethnic group [the Fulani] and supporters of Cellou and his allies.”
Conde is a member of the Malinke ethnic group.
Diallo urged transition president Sekouba Konate to “ask security forces to stop killing our people, taking them from their homes, imprisoning them.”
Washington also appealed for calm.
“We encourage both Dr Conde and Mr Diallo to urge their supporters to remain calm and allow the court to evaluate any irregularities,” US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.
A police source said a man had been killed by a soldier in Conakry on Tuesday.
“There was a dispute between them, the man tried to escape and the soldier shot him in the neck,” he said.
In Pita, central Guinea, one man was killed and 14 injured when Diallo’s supporters looted two houses and a neighbor belonging to the rival camp opened fire on them, a Red Cross source said.
On Monday, witnesses from Middle Guinea said soldiers had killed a man, shooting and wounding several other people. The fourth victim died in clashes between Diallo supporters and police in Conakry before results were released.
Soldiers and special election security police on Tuesday patrolled hotspot suburbs of Conakry such as Ratoma, a Diallo stronghold. Witnesses said soldiers would randomly fire shots as they passed through the suburb.
In Dakar, Human Rights Watch’s West Africa researcher Corinne Dufka also condemned “excessive force” by security forces.
Of some 30 gunshot wounds reported from Conakry’s Donka hospital, most were direct and not from stray bullets, she added.
“We’re also hearing many accounts of people being pursued into their houses and beaten quite severely by members of the security forces,” she said.
Guinea’s election is meant to bring an end more than 52 years of dictatorship and military rule in a country where troops have long held sway.
Dufka said security reform should be at the top of the new president’s agenda.
In September last year, troops massacred more than 150 people in a Conakry stadium who had gathered to protest against the military junta that had taken power in a December 2008 coup.
If the Supreme Court confirms the election results, Conde will become the fifth leader of Guinea since independence from France in 1958, ruling a country that is desperately poor, despite massive stores of bauxite and iron ore.
He follows a succession of strongmen: “father of independence” turned despot Sekou Toure, who ruled for 26 years; military leader Lansane Conte, who ruled for 24 years; coup leader Moussa Dadis Camara, who was in place for just over a year; and transition president General Sekouba Konate.
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