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Mort de Amadou Diallo à New York City

Susan Sachs
Top Officials Join Crowd in Guinea as Body of Slain Peddler Arrives

New York Times — February 16, 1999

Conakry, Guinea — The prime minister of this small West African nation joined an array of Government officials, family and friends on the sweltering airport tarmac to welcome Amadou Diallo's parents as they arrived from the United States Monday to find that their son, in death, had attained the status of a national hero.

"Like many of our people, he left to go to another country, and he worked hard and studied hard," said Prime Minister Sidya Touré, speaking of Diallo, the Guinean street peddler who was shot to death by four New York City police officers on Feb. 4. "But he is a Guinean, one of ours always, and it's natural that we should show solidarity with him because of the way he died."

Diallo's coffin, a plain pine box with his name and destination written in felt-tipped pen on the top, was removed from the plane that brought it from Newark International Airport, through Paris, to Conakry, the capital. It was driven in a screeching motorcade of air-conditioned Government vans and battered private cars that sped along a rutted road lined with fruit vendors and smoking grills to the city morgue.

A two-hour rally outside the morgue and then a Government-sponsored prayer service for Diallo are scheduled for Tuesday. On Wednesday, the family and numerous Government officials will take the coffin 300 miles to Hollande Bouru, the village where Diallo's father was born.

The father, Saikou Diallo, said that his son had spent school vacations in the village. The son will be buried next to his grandfather, who was a teacher and scholar of the Koran.

The presence of many of the country's top ministers in a crowd of about 100 people at the airport was just one sign of the distress and excitement that Diallo's killing has aroused in Guinea.

Many young men at the airport wore white T-shirts on which Diallo's photograph and name were printed in black. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has organized the caravan to accompany the body to the cemetery on Wednesday. One ministry official said the trip could take much longer than the normal five hours because people living along the route had been encouraged, on Government radio and television, to join it as the motorcade passed their homes.

The Diallo case has received much attention in the official media, partly as a cautionary tale of what can happen to a young black immigrant in New York City, and partly as a reflection of the unrelenting coverage that the killing has received in the United States.

It has also provided an eye-opening account of black political activism in the United States, several Guineans said. Accounts of the rallies held in New York City after the Diallo shooting have been printed in the newspapers, and most people on the street, it seemed, now know exactly how many bullets — 41 — were fired by the police officers who killed the 22-year-old immigrant.

"We are not naïve. We know there is racism in America," said a man named Antoine waiting for friends outside the airport. He refused to give his last name. "And we have many bodies of our compatriots coming back to Guinea who have been killed there. But now we want to show our support for the struggle of black people in America."

The parents of Diallo, who have been divorced for five years, flew home with the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose National Action Network made the flight arrangements and shepherded the family through news conferences, public appearances and tours of New York City.

Sharpton, on his first visit to Guinea, said Diallo's mother had asked him to be the executor of her son's estate. He said he would stay in the country until after the funeral.

"I promised this lady I would stay with her son until he is laid to rest," said Sharpton during the flight, nodding toward Kadidiatou Diallo, who was sitting across from him.

Mrs. Diallo said she and her former husband had met several of the men who are now Government ministers when the couple had an import-export business in Thailand. They imported gemstones from Guinea for jewelers in Southeast Asia, beginning in about 1984.

Amadou Diallo spent much of his youth out of Guinea. His parents said he studied at a French international school in Bangkok, starting in 1990, and then in 1993, in Singapore, took courses in computers and accounting, conducted in English.

Both parents also are well traveled. The father said he followed a family and tribal merchant tradition, starting at age 17 by buying and selling goods between Guinea and neighboring Liberia and Ivory Coast. He left Guinea in the early 1960's, because then-President Sekou Touré restricted private business, and eventually settled in Thailand after a round-the-world trip to the United States, Europe and Asia to decide which countries had the best climate for trading.

He said his son was also observing that tradition in his work as a street vendor. "He was good at business," Saikou Diallo said.