By Saliou Samb
CONAKRY, Nov 8 2001 (IPS)

Relative calm is returning to Guinea where opposition supporters, who tried to enter Kankan, a city some 600 kilometres east of the capital, Conakry, were beaten up by the army last week.

The opposition supporters were travelling to Kankan to protest the Nov 11 referendum on whether President Lansana Conte should stand for a third term of office.

Abdourahmane Coumbassa, of the Guinean People’s Union, said the clashes occurred between opposition militants and soldiers loyal to the ruling party.

Coumbassa said 62 opposition militants, who had been arrested during the fracas, have been freed, including Ousmane Kaba, a former minister and a top opposition leader. H “The soldiers were armed to the teeth and equipped with clubs and whips, and they charged the opposition supporters when they tried to enter the city. The opposition supporters resisted and there was a skirmish,” Lansana Komara, an opposition leader, told IPS.

“Several dozen people were injured, some of who were admitted to Kankan hospital and remain hospitalised,” he said.

Komara said, “The convoy was made up of leaders from the main opposition parties, including Ba Mamadou and Siradiou Diallo, Sidya Toure, Fatou Bangoura and Charles Pascal Tolno.”

He denied allegations by the soldiers that the violence was sparked by a clash between rival political groups.

A military source told IPS, “The army intervened only after a clash between opposition and ruling party militants”. According to the source, “After having spent the night in the town of Dinguiraye, the opposition convoy headed toward Kankan. There, ruling party militants were waiting for them. There was a fight and that’s why the army intervened.”

Rejecting army’s version of the story, Komara said “the leaders of the convoy were barred from entering the city by the soldiers, some of whom were armed with machine guns”.

Commenting on the incident, the Minister of Justice, Abou Camara, said, “What happened at Kankan is unfortunate. The convoy was also illegal. That was why the law enforcement agencies intervened to prevent those people from violating the law. You cannot live in a country and refuse to respect its laws.”

In Conakry, Moussa Solano, the Minister for Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, said he “was not aware of the confrontation in Kankan”.

The Guinean oppositions have called for a boycott of the Nov 11 referendum, which — the ruling party hopes — will allow President Conte to run for another term.

The government has warned that it will brook “no violation of the law which gives all citizens the right to vote”.

The Movement for a Change of Power and Democracy Against the Referendum (MORAD), a coalition of opposition groups, is organising demonstrations to “protest Conte’s decision to crown himself life president”. Conte was elected in 1993, and re- elected in 1998″ for a two five-year terms as provided by the constitution.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose country is helping Guinea quell the rebellion in the south, urged Guinean authorities, in a message, to “hold free and fair elections to guarantee the stability in Guinea”.

“If the Guinean authorities are not able to guarantee those standards, we will be forced to reduce our aid to Guinea,” warned the message.

The U.S. warning was followed by a declaration from the ambassadors of France, the United States, Canada, Germany and Japan to the Minister of Territorial Administration. Speaking for the Group of Eight (G-8), the ambassadors said they were “very concerned about the situation in Guinea”.

G-8 comprises the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, France, Russia, Italy and Britain.

The European Union also urged the Guinean government to uphold the country’s constitution.

Unrelenting, President Conte criticised “foreign interference in the Guinean internal affairs”. He told teachers, who came to pay their loyalty to him, that “the referendum will go ahead” on Nov 11.

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