Guinea: A Nation at the Crossroads
Political Will Needed to Reverse Legacy of Abuse, Impunity, MAY 24, 2011
(Conakry) - President Alpha Condé, who took power in December 2010, should address the profound human rights and governance problems that have underscored decades of abuse in Guinea, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The report identifies the main factors that have contributed to years of impunity and recommends steps Guinea should take to promote good governance and to end the history of abuse.
The 68-page report, "We Have Lived in Darkness: A Human Rights Agenda for Guinea's New Government," calls on the government to bring to justice those responsible for massacres in 2007 and 2009. It says that the government should strengthen the judiciary and provide it with adequate resources, rein in and reform the security sector, and ensure that Guinea's population can benefit from the country's abundant natural resources. Human Rights Watch also recommended establishing (1) a truth commission to uncover the causes of Guinea's violent past and (2) an anti-corruption commission to end the misuse of its wealth.
"Guinea's future hangs in the balance," said Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "President Condé's actions - or inactions - will either create a positive new human rights trajectory or trap Guinea in the excesses and abuses of the past."
The report is based on over 200 interviews with Guinean lawyers, judges, and Justice Ministry personnel; victims of and witnesses to human rights crimes; detained and convicted prisoners; members of the army, gendarmerie, and police force; Finance Ministry personnel and businesspeople; members of civil society and others. One man interviewed for the report summed up the urgency for improving human rights as follows:
For 52 long years, the people of Guinea have really suffered from the effects of impunity and corruption. We have lived in darkness - no electricity, no water, no opportunities for our children. Those in power have ruined the lives of generation after generation. The families who lost their sons and daughters during the Sékou Touré time, then in 2007, and again in 2009, have yet to finish crying. Those who have done this to us, to our country, must know that they can't continue on as before.
A History of State-Sponsored Abuses
Since independence from France in 1958, Guinea's rulers - Ahmed Sékou Touré (1958-1984), Lansana Conté (1984-2008), and Captain Moussa Dadis Camara (2008-2009) - have relied on ruling party militias and security forces to intimidate and violently repress independent voices. Thousands of Guineans who dared to oppose the government have been tortured, starved, beaten to death by state security forces, or executed in police custody and military barracks. All three leaders failed to investigate and bring to justice members of the security forces implicated in serious crimes.
"Guinea's history of impunity for very serious crimes has emboldened successive generations of human rights abusers," Dufka said. "Dismantling this architecture and culture of impunity and building a society based on the rule of law is the single biggest and most important challenge facing President Condé's new administration."
Strengthen the Judiciary
President Condé's new administration should take immediate steps to reform Guinea's chronically underfunded judiciary and to give it the support it needs, Human Rights Watch said. The marginalization, neglect, and manipulation of the judiciary have led to striking deficiencies in the sector.
Judges, lawyers, legal clerks, and correction workers interviewed for this report said the funding they have to conduct judicial investigations, or even to staff, supply, and run their offices is grossly inadequate. Some said they did not have enough funding to feed and provide basic care for prisoners, or to transport them to court. An estimated 80 to 90 percent of inmates in detention in Guinea's largest prison have not been brought before a judge or convicted. Many have been held for more than five years without trial.
Create a Truth-Telling Mechanism
Human Rights Watch urges the government to establish a truth-telling mechanism to illuminate underexposed atrocities, notably those committed during the reign of Sékou Touré, to explore the dynamics that gave rise to and sustained successive repressive regimes, and to make recommendations to prevent their recurrence.
Reform the Security System
Condé has inherited a security sector steeped in a culture of unprofessionalism and indiscipline. Soldiers and policemen implicated in extortion, banditry, theft, kidnapping, racketeering, and excessive use of lethal force have enjoyed near-complete impunity. The rapid growth of the army in combination with the lack of political will to ensure discipline and accountability have contributed to the years of abuses by the security forces
"Behaving more as predators than protectors, men in uniform have been allowed to get away with abuses ranging from isolated criminal acts to crimes against humanity," said Dufka.
Human Rights Watch calls on the government to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for abuses; to investigate, prosecute, and punish abusers; and to implement a credible road map to reform formulated by the UN and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Root Out Corruption
Human Rights Watch also calls on the new government to combat endemic corruption, which has for decades impeded Guineans' rights to basic health care, education, and other socio-economic rights. Despite hosting one of the world's largest reserves of bauxite, and other valuable minerals, Guinea remains one of the world's poorest countries - ranked 156th out of 169 on the UN Human Development Index. Guineans also suffer some of the world's worst quality-of-life indicators, including adult literacy and infant mortality.
To remedy these deficiencies, Human Rights Watch urges the government, with strong donor agency support, to provide stringent, transparent oversight over the state budgetary process and natural resource contracts, and establish an independent anti-corruption commission empowered to investigate, subpoena, and indict those who siphon off public resources.
Sustaining Legitimacy
Lastly, in order to ensure effective oversight of the executive and provide for political representation of the Guinean people, Human Rights Watch pressed Condé to set out a concrete timetable for legislative elections and ensure that the elections are conducted in a free, fair, and transparent manner. He must also take concrete steps to address the lack of political neutrality and unprofessional conduct demonstrated by the security forces during the elections which brought him to power.
"Guinea's profound human rights problems - endemic corruption, a culture of impunity, weak rule of law and crushing poverty - have blighted the lives and livelihoods of countless Guineans," Dufka said. "In order to break this cycle of abuse and sustain the momentum generated by the elections, the government must take immediate, practical steps to confront these challenges."
Guinea: court action, but when?
Published on : 10 May 2011 - 1:08pm | By International Justice Tribune (RNW)
A few months from now, Guineans will hold a sombre commemoration: on the 28th of September 2009, soldiers, militias and mercenaries went on the rampage in the capital’s main stadium.
By Bram Posthumus, Conakry
They killed 157 people and raped dozens of women. The victims and survivors of that mass crime are beginning to ask when justice will be their due.
Even for Guineans who are used to an army that is out-of-control, it was a scene they will never forget. They had seen the army opening fire on unarmed civilians before but the scene of women being raped in broad daylight in Conakry’s stadium was beyond shocking.
September 28, 1958 and 2009
September 28th is a significant date. In 1958, when Guinea rejected French colonial rule, it was the day they chose to live independently and with pride, recalling the famous phrase used by their first president Ahmed Sékou Touré, when he addressed visiting French president Charles de Gaulle, prior to the referendum: “we prefer poverty with freedom to a life of opulence in slavery.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré himself brought tyranny to the nation, keeping the population in a state of constant fear by referring to a “permanent conspiracy” to which Guinea was subjected. When he died in 1984, around 50,000 people had lost their lives in one of his concentration camps and up to three million had left the country.
His successor, Lansana Conté, allowed the army to disintegrate and lose its way. In January 2007, amid a nationwide strike, soldiers opened fire on a civilian demonstration, killing more than 150. One of the commanders of that massacre was the president’s son, Ousmane Conté, also a notorious cocaine dealer. He has served time in jail for his drugs trade – never for his more serious crimes. He is still in the army.
Impunity of main culprits
Running through all this is the thread of impunity. And the fear is that those who perpetrated the stadium massacre on September 28th, 2009, will remain unpunished as well. Two of the main culprits are outside the country.
First, captain Moussa Dadis Camara, who became Guinea’s third president when he took over after Lansana Conté died. At the time of the mass crime in the stadium, he was the head of state and politically responsible. He told French Africa magazine Matalana in January he was hoping that the real culprits would be named – if not, God would name them.
The other main suspect is Lieutenant Aboubacar ‘Toumba’ Diakité. It was he who shot Captain Camara in the head during an argument about who should take responsibility. He told French radio earlier this year that he was ready to face justice.
Constant ICC-visits, but no action
What sparked that argument was the announcement by the ICC that it was investigating the massacre. Since then, visits of ICC delegations have been multiplying, much to the chagrin of Boussouriou Diallo, a witness at the September 28 events and spokesman for Avipa09, the Association of the Victims, their Parents and Friends of September 28, set up in 2009.
“We want to see an end to these constant visits,’ he says, ‘and some concrete action taken.’ He is unhappy about the fact that when an ICC delegation visits, they talk separately with the victims, the government and the three Guinean judges appointed to treat the case. ‘We have made it clear from the start: we have no confidence in the judicial system here. The trial should take place in The Hague. Now the ICC keeps saying that it wants to give the Guinean judicial system a chance but our position is clear. No-one will dare testify if a trial is to be held in Guinea. The military is everywhere, there will be reprisals.”
No confidence in Guinean justice system
Past impunity does not inspire confidence in the Guinean justice system, as it requires a wholesale reform exercise. A brief report on a March conference about judicial reform gave a little insight into how rotten that system is. Its independence is non-existent. Magistrates work out of deserted warehouses and at times sessions are even held in open air, under a tree. The system is corrupt at all levels. If you have no money and connections, do not bother taking a case to court’” advises Diallo, adding, “the entire judicial system gets 0.2% of the national budget. So it cannot function. And there is another issue. The term “crime against humanity” does not exist in the Guinean Penal Code.’ In other words: there is no legal term for the type of crime for which Diallo and his fellow victims want to put individuals on trial. No wonder they want the trial outside Guinea.
List of demands
No more visits and a concrete date for a start of proceedings in The Hague. That is the very short list of demands of the victims of September 28. Diallo and his associates do not understand why it takes so long for the ICC to proceed. “We are beginning to believe there is no political will. The pressure must be kept up, especially through the European Union, so that we don’t have to wait too long for justice.”’
Disturbing parallel
A disturbing parallel appears to emerge: a former head of state in exile, crimes committed on his watch, a long wait for justice... While in this case it is not a country but the ICC itself that seems to drag its feet, the case of former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré begins to feel uneasily familiar. When confronting Diallo with the parallel he concurred: ‘Precisely. This is our fear. But we are not giving up.’
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Brief history
… independence from France in 1958,
… Guinea's rulers - Ahmed Sékou Touré (1958-1984), Lansana Conté (1984-2008), and Captain Moussa Dadis Camara (2008-2009)
… All three leaders failed to bring to justice ruling party militias and security forces involved in serious crimes, notably massacre in 2007 and in 2009
… two major problems – (1) impunity and (2) corruption (resource curse)
… President Alpha Condé took office in Dec. 2010 ; Guinea at the crossroads either (i) creating a new human rights trajectory or (ii) trap Guinea in the excesses and abuses of the past
Problems
Guinea’s chronically under-funded judiciary
A truth-telling mechanism ( fact-finding )
Soldiers and policemen behave more as predators than protectors – ECOWAS
Endemic corruption – hosting one of the world’s largest reserves of bauxite and other valuable minerals
Political reform – including, legislative election
Chronology
… On September 28, 1958, independence from French colonialism ; first president Ahmed Sékou Touré ; when he died, about 50,000 had died on concentration camps
… his successor, Lansana Conté (1984-2008), fire on a civilian demonstration amid a nationwide strike, killing more than 150 ; his son with impunity
… Guinea’s third president, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara (2008-2009), On September 28, 2009, soldiers, militias and mercenaries went on the rampage in the capital’s main stadium ; 157 were killed, dozens of women raped
… constant ICC’s visit, but no action
… a former head of state in exile ; the case of former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré
