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By Nick Tattersall and Saliou Samb
Tue 23 Jan 2007 6:00 AM ET
Conakry, Jan 23 (Reuters) — Guinean police and soldiers clamped a security cordon around central Conakry and other towns on Tuesday to try to stifle violent protests triggered by a general strike in which more than 30 people have been killed.
At least 17 people were shot dead in the West African country's capital on Monday when security forces fired on protesters in the deadliest day so far of the two-week-old strike by unions aimed at ousting President Lansana Conte.
The stoppage begun on Jan. 10 has halted bauxite shipments by the world's biggest exporter of the ore from which aluminium is extracted.
Despite these mineral riches most of the 10 million population of the former French colony, deemed by Transparency International to be the most corrupt country in Africa, live in poverty.
Security forces on Tuesday guarded the strategic 8th of November highway bridge leading into central Conakry.
Residents said police and soldiers were carrying out house-to-house searches looking for protest leaders.
"Last night I did not sleep at my place. The presidential guard were looking for me," said a youth association leader in the Kaloum neighbourhood, who asked not to be named.
But police said the leaders of the two main unions organising the strike, who were detained on Monday with dozens of other people, had been released on Conte's orders.
The general strike exploded into violence after the president, a reclusive diabetic in his 70s whom strike leaders say is unfit to rule, refused to accede to their demands that he step aside in favour of a consensus unity government.
Six people were also killed in disturbances in eastern Guinea on Monday. This, combined with at least eight strike-related deaths reported previously, brought the accumulated death toll to more than 30.
At least 150 people were injured.
Doctors at Conakry's Donka Hospital said they were overwhelmed by the number of gunshot victims and were running out of medicines. Some patients were being operated on in corridors, without anaesthetic, they said.
Besides Conakry, the security forces were also reinforcing their presence in up-country towns, where anti-government protesters have attacked public buildings during the strike.
"We're in the process of redeploying to certain towns in the interior like Labe and Kankan ... our mission is essentially to protect public buildings," a senior police officer said.
The United Nations and foreign governments expressed alarm at the killings and called for restraint.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticised what he called "excessive use of force".
Some Conakry residents said they they were beaten by police after being arrested.
"They were hitting us with batons on the back and on the head. They stripped us to the waist and beat us. We were so numerous that eventually they released us," said Morlaye Yansane, a 26-year-old trainee teacher.
But despite the killings, strike supporters said they were determined to continue their protest against Conte's rule.
"If negotiations do not succeed, we will be out again, even if they start killing again. People are not afraid," said Baboula, 25, who declined to give his full name.
Strike leaders say Conte, who has ruled Guinea since seizing power in a 1984 coup, has become increasingly erratic.
They cite repeated scares about his health, sudden and chaotic cabinet reshuffles and his personal intervention to free from jail two former allies accused of graft.
Contact : info@webguine.site
webGuinée, Camp Boiro Memorial, webAfriqa © 1997-2013 Afriq Access & Tierno S. Bah. All rights reserved.