GUINEA: US Embassy Tightens Security, As Police Hunt Down Bombers

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Apr 14 1999 (IPS) - The US embassy in Guinea has tightened security as the Guinean authorities track down the people who planted a home-made bomb at the embassy in the capital Conakry, on Monday.

The bomb was detonated by security personnel who recorded no casualties.

Since Monday, the Guinean security forces have been placed on “red alert” to avoid bomb blasts similar to the one which occurred at the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where more than 250 people lost their lives, in August last year.

A senior US diplomat contacted by IPS from Conakry this week, said tighter security measures have been introduced to prevent repeat of the act.

“Our entire embassy routine has been altered and henceforth, entry into the embassy compound would be strictly by appointment,” the official said.

He added that although the home-made bomb was detonated, the embassy was taking no chances, and “will not allow terrorists to attack Americans and other civilians in the embassy in Conakry.”

He said they “are working with the Guinean authorities on ways of hunting down the terrorists and their organisations.”

A spokesperson at the Guinean ministry of interior, Fantamadie Conde, said Wednesday that no arrests had been made yet, but that suspicions point at “an attempt by terrorists to attack Americans and other nationals at the embassy.”

This incident, the first of its kind in the West African country, has had serious impact on the activities of the embassy, which also caters to thousands of people from war-torn neighbouring Sierra Leone.

The US embassy in that country is closed because of insecurity and Sierra Leoneans wishing to travel to the United States, obtain visas and other entry documents from the US embassy in Conakry.

This process is now in trouble. Hundreds of Sierra Leoneans queue in front of the embassy, sometimes spending nights out in the cold, waiting for their interviews for visas, which are conducted twice a week.

“The situation has become unbearable,” says Issa Gamanga, a Sierra Leonean businessman. “Two people collapsed recently from exhaustion while hundreds more were turned back by baton- wielding embassy guards.”

Gamanga, who was trying to obtain a visa from the US embassy in Conakry, said the general feeling is that foreign terrorists, suspected to be Muslim extremists may be behind the attempted bomb blast.

Guinea’s population is predominantly Muslim and the country has strong links with countries suspected of backing terrorist campaigns.

According to official records, a substantial portion of the country’s aid package, outside the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), come from such countries as Libya and Iran, which have been accused by Washington of supporting terrorists.

Some, however, link the incident to radical local students or youths with anti-American posture, who are unhappy with February’s killing in New York City of a Guinean immigrant, Amadou Diallo, by alleged racist police.

Diallo, a youth, was shot over 40 times by four white policemen, who are currently standing trial in the US. The incident sparked demonstrations by the city’s black community and heightened racial tension in New York.

“There had been threats by some Guineans in Conakry to hit back at America for Diallo’s killing. So I am not surprised at the incident,” said Alimatou Diaby, a Conakry-based political analyst.

But the police in Conakry has vowed to apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to book. “No matter what it takes, we will nab the culprits and put a quick halt to their plans to destabilise Guinea,” said a Guinean police spokesman in Conakry.