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Army Rebellion Leaves 50 Dead

All Africa Press Service - February 12, 1996

Conakry — Guinean authorities have ordered the arrest of troops involved in a mutiny after some 2,000 soldiers demanding higher pay and better working conditions rampaged through the west African state's capital killing 50 people and wounding 100 others.

The rebellious soldiers ran amok on February 2, looting shops in Conakry and shelling the presidential palace where President Lansana Conte was held up.

Most of the dead and wounded were civilians caught in the cross-fire. Some 300 soldiers occupied Conakry airport before commandeering civilian vehicles to transport them into the city, firing machine-gun volleys in the air.

According to sources close to the president, at one point on February 3, a group of soldiers had captured Conte and taken him to the Alpha Yaya military camp where the rebellion began.

Conte then sacked his Defence Minister Abdourahmane Diallo, whom the troops blamed for a deterioration in their conditions, but accused non-commissioned army officers in cahoots with several senior officers of attempting to wrest the country's leadership from him.

A group calling itself the Committee for National Salvation had circulated leaflets in the capital saying the rebels would "fight on until the final victory." The document denounced "the disorder, corruption and nepotism" of the government.

On February 3, President Conte finally appeared to be giving in to the soldiers' demands and announced that negotiations with rebel troops had "wound up with an agreement". He appealed to them to "return at once to their units."

Addressing about 1,000 soldiers in Camp Samory, in the centre of Conakry, he said: "It is, from now on, to me that you must address all your problems."

The mutineers applauded him when he said that he was setting up a committee to look into troops' grievances, mainly salary increases.

President Conte said the demands of the soldiers concerned five points, all of which could be achieved, but he did not reveal what the points were.

Sources close to the government said the main point was about an amnesty for the rebels, and notably of five senior officers, considered leaders of the rebellion.

General Conte seized power in 1984 in a military coup, but in 1992, introduced a multi-party system and was elected president in December 1993.

Business resumed in Conakry on February 5 and Conte said he would introduce some changes in the army. He gave no details about the planned reform, but indicated that he would bring in military officers "able to educate the soldiers."

The order to arrest the mutineers issued by the Interior Ministry on February 6 seemed to contradict an earlier allusion to a possible amnesty by President Conte who, when asked about what he intended to do with the soldiers, said he would let "democratic institutions to do their job."

But even as the order to arrest was being issued, soldiers were circulating leaflets in the capital warning: "Let everyone be aware that, in case of arrests or reprisals, the entire army will retaliate energetically."

According to reliable sources some soldiers who took part in the rebellion had not returned to their barracks by last week and were still armed.

The Guinea Defence Ministry, in another attempt to placate the discontented army, had, meanwhile, announced plans to pay compensation to families of soldiers killed while serving in the strife-torn neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia.

An estimated 800 Guinean soldiers are serving in Sierra Leone alongside government forces fighting rebels there. The two countries have a military agreement which stipulates that each side will help the other in the event of aggression from a third party.

Other Guinean troops are deployed in Liberia as part of the Nigerian- led Economic Community of West African peacekeeping group sent there in 1990.

The Africa Church Information Service, Post Office Box 14205, Nairobi, Kenya.