WEST AFRICA: Guinea Guards itself Against Turbulent Neighbours

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, May 21 1998 (IPS) - Guinea has stepped up security along its porous border with Liberia and Sierra Leone in an attempt to ward off any attacks by rebels and dissidents based in the two countries.

According to media reports here, the government of Gen. Lansana Conte decided to seal the border so as to create a buffer that would prevent Sierra Leonean, Liberian and Guinean dissidents from launching a rebellion in Guinea.

The ‘Independent Observer’ newspaper, published here, said it had gathered from refugees now being repatriated from camps in Guinea that hundreds of Guinean soldiers had been deployed on that country’s borders. Several other Sierra Leonean papers this week carried similar stories of a Guinean troop build-up.

Tension has been building along the border after remnants of Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) turned their spotlight on the neighbouring country.

The two groups have accused Guinea of supporting a military offensive against them by ECOMOG, the West African intervention force that toppled the AFRC junta in February of this year and reinstalled President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.

Rebel commander Col Sam Bockarie, whose RUF had rallied to the AFRC after the latter ousted Tejan Kabbah in May 1997, threatened to take the rebellion to Guinea if the authorities there did not stop backing ECOMOG’s offensive against RUF positions in Kono and Kailahun in eastern Sierra Leone.

“We are aware of ECOMOG troops advancing on us in Kailahun from Guinea and if the authorities there don’t stop this action, I will order my men to Guinea,” Bockarie said.

Guinea is a member of the West African Economic Community (ECOWAS), the regional organisation that has deployed ECOMOG (ECOWAS Monitoring Group) in both Sierra Leone and Liberia. President Conte’s government has contributed two batallions to the ECOMOG military operation in Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone’s independent ‘Democrat’ newspaper reported this week that the AFRC rebels were crying foul because “the multinational force, ECOMOG, is tightening the screws on the remnants of the junta in Kono and Kailahun.”

Reacting to the news of the military buildup, a top Guinean embassy official here told IPS on May 20 that Conakry was taking no chances with the rebels. “Our borders are now well fortified and we will not at all allow a spillover of the fighting in Sierra Leone,” he said.

He stressed that his country would continue to provide troops for ECOMOG as long as they were needed. “Guinea is an ECOWAS member state and therefore our commitment to ECOMOG operations in Sierra Leone is total,” he said.

Guinea has strong reasons to be wary of rebel incursions. Last year, Guinean exiles in Liberia threatened to invade the country.

The dissidents were led by Col. Gbago Zoumanigui, who allegedly masterminded a 1996 military mutiny in Guinea. That uprising led to the death of several army officers and the arrest of a number of others. Zoumanigui, who was a commanding officer in the Guinean capital, Conakry, fled the country following the failed putsch against Conte. He later surfaced in Liberia.

Speculation is rife here that Zoumanigui may find a conduit for his planned invasion in the Sierra Leonean rebels, who have been coming under increasing pressure from ECOMOG.

Sensing the dangers posed to regional peace and stability, ECOMOG task force commander Brig-Gen. Maxwell Khobe has warned that the peacekeeping force will not tolerate dissidents launching attacks on any country in the region.

“We (ECOMOG) will crush any attempts by dissidents to invade any country in (West Africa),” he said, adding that ECOMOG could not allow its gains in Liberia and Sierra Leone to be reversed by “misguided rebels”.

Watchers of political developments in the region point accusing fingers at Liberia — which ended a seven-year civil war last year — as the breeding ground for rebel activities.

“ECOMOG should not allow (President) Charles Taylor (of Liberia) to succeed in his grand scheme to distabilise the sub- region,” said Musa Tommy, a political analyst here.

Last week the Liberian president dispatched a 14-member delegation to assure the authorities here that his government would not allow Liberian territory to be used by dissidents to destablise the region.