Johensberg, September 30: Thousands had marched to the football stadium in downtown Conakry on Monday to protest against Guinea’s military junta.
Nearly 160 people paid for that show of dissent with their lives, it emerged yesterday, some gunned down in a hail of bullets, other skewered by bayonets as they tried to flee or rescue the women being raped by soldiers in the stands.
As the full scale of the massacre became known, condemnation poured in from around the world. France, the country’s former colonial ruler, suspended military aid and the African Union threatened sanctions. The French also called an emergency EU meeting for today to discuss punishing those individuals behind the “savage and bloody” repression.
An estimated 50,000 people had defied a ban on rallies and joined an opposition protest against the rule of Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, who seized power in a bloodless coup in December. The military ruler had promised not to stand in elections in January but rumours that he would contest them after all prompted the democracy rally.
–Agencies