//CORRECTED REPEAT//POLITICS-GUINEA: Violence Mars Elections Campaign

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Dec 11 1998 (IPS) - With barely one week to go before the Presidential and legislative elections in Guinea, rival supporters of contending parties have engaged in pre-election violence that threatens the stability of the West African nation.

Last weekend, clashes were reported in the southern district of Farannah, located some 300 kms from the capital Conakry, between opposition supporters and militants of incumbent Gen. Lansana Conte’s Unity and Progress Party (PUP), in which casualties were reported.

Alhassan Sillah, a Conakry-based journalist, who has been covering the political rallies and campaigning, told IPS on Dec 9 the Farannah incident was not an isolated one.

“Two opposition supporters were killed by security personnel while more than 20 sustained serious injuries in the Farannah fiasco,” he said, adding that “there have been several violent incidents in other parts of the country”.

Earlier this week, a government official was lynched at an opposition rally in the city, thus forcing the government to deploy anti-riot police, the army and gendermerie in the capital and other opposition strongholds.

Conte’s main rival, Alpha Conde of the Rally for the Guinean People (RPG), returned to Conakry after spending three years in France on Dec 8, to crowds of thousands of his supporters.

The opposition claim Conte is using troops to disrupt their political rallies. “The troops are out to intimidate and frustrate our campaign efforts, but we will remain undaunted. It is time for Gen. Conte to go,” said Sekouba Diaby of the RPG party.

Apart from disrupting opposition rallies, PUP also denies the opposition equal access to state radio and television. Very little of the opposition’s activities are covered, if at all. Newspapers suspected of backing opposition parties are constantly raided by agents of the government and, at least, printing materials, computers other media equipment were forcefully removed from the offices of L’Independent newspaper, which is perceived to be opposed to Gen. Conte’s PUP.

The government has refused to allow foreign elections monitors into the country and local rights monitors have expressed fears about the escalation of campaign violence.

An official of the Guinean Association For Human and People’s Rights said the training of militants in the run up to the Dec 14 elections, is a dangerous omen. “Each party is training and arming its militia in battle-readiness and we are sure to see a show down in coming days, said the official, who preferred anonymity.

Campaigning has been narrowed along ethnic lines in Guinea. President Conte hails from the minority Susu ethnic group, which has its strongest constituency in the capital. His party is generally seen as a Susu party.

The two majority tribes in Guinea are Madinke and Foullahs. The Foullahs are mainly in the party For Renewal and Progress (PRP) of Siradiou Diallo and the Union for the New Republic (UNR) of Ba Mamadou. They are also spread among other minority parties and political associations.

The bulk of the Madinkes support RPG. But a common desire to see Gen. Conte out has necessitated the formation of a coalition of opposition parties and political associations known as Coordination of the Democratic Coalition (CODEM) with Jean-Marie DORE as spokesperson.

The opposition’s last minute battle for an independent electoral commission and elections monitors hasn’t yielded results.

The Conte administration has refused opposition demands, including the release of more than 50 political detainees. Although observers believe the elections would be rigged by the General, divisions within the opposition on ethnic and sectarian lines, does not help either.

General Conte came to power in 1984, after the death of dictator Ahmed Sekou Toure and an ensuing power struggle, within the army.

Since then, he has ran the country with an iron fist, coercing any suspected opposition. In 1996, an attempt by army officers to topple him, in a mutiny, was violently crushed with some senior military officers either executed or fleeing into exile. The leader of the mutiny, Colonel Gbago Zoumanigui, fled to Liberia, from where he is believed to have put together a fighting force to launch a rebellion in Guinea.

Zoumanigui’s rebels, backed by troops of the ousted Sierra Leone junta, have been carrying out armed raids into Guinea during the past few months.

The rebels also have threatened to disrupt the Dec 14 polls, but the government has dismissed their warnings as “less worrying.”