AP Features, February 15th, 2007
Bands of soldiers patrolled Guinea's capital and residents said shooting continued in the suburbs on Thursday, the third day of martial law following days of clashes between protesters and security forces and calls for the president to resign.
Government officials and union leaders said they wanted to restart negotiations, but it was unclear whether union leaders would attend an afternoon meeting called by the head of Guinea's national assembly.
Opposition leaders and trade unions accuse President Lansana Conte, the ailing leader who seized power more than two decades ago in an army coup, of violating a power-sharing agreement when he named a political ally as prime minister Friday. The move sparked protests and rioting that have killed at least 64 people, according to a local human rights group.
Rabiatou Serah Diallo, head of one of the West African country's major unions, called for negotiations with the government to recommence late Wednesday. Along with opposition politicians and other union heads, Diallo has demanded in recent days that President Lansana Conte resign. It was not immediately clear if her call for talks meant she was abandoning this demand.
Thierno Madjou Sow, president of the League of Human Rights in the capital, Conakry, said that at least 64 people have been killed since violence broke out Saturday. He said those deaths bring his group's tally to at least 120 killed since unions first called a general strike in mid-January.
The unions ended the strike following the power-sharing agreement in late January. But they said the president sidestepped the agreement by naming a confidant as prime minister and called on Monday for Guineans to return to the streets until Conte stepped down. Angry youths took to the streets, throwing stones and ransacking buildings. Security forces fired into the crowds.
Conte declared martial law Monday night, imposing a curfew for all but a few daylight hours and banning all public gatherings. Even residents organizing funerals have had to apply to neighborhood officials for permission to come together in a large group.
Residents in the suburbs of Kipe and Dixinn said they continued to hear shooting through the night and into Thursday morning _ apparently soldiers shooting into the air.
"They started shooting again this morning. It's been two days that we haven't gone out and haven't slept," said Aminata Cisse, a Dixinn resident.
Much of the violence has taken place in suburbs and the interior of Guinea, with the city center staying relatively calm throughout. As nightfall brought the return of a curfew Wednesday, children played soccer in the street downtown and some residents strolled down the roads.
Sow said his group received reports of 21 deaths from gunshot wounds in Conakry's suburbs over the five days, and another 43 deaths outside the capital.
The violence started after Conte appointed his close ally Eugene Camara, a Cabinet member since 1997, as prime minister. The post had been left vacant since Conte, who seized power in a 1984 coup, fired Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo in April.
Last month, Conte agreed to appoint a consensus prime minister who was not a current member of his government in a deal to end a two-week national strike that brought Guinea to an economic standstill and sparked clashes that left at least 59 dead.
Diallo said union leaders want to restart negotiations with the government, but have not come up with a specific plan to do so.
"We need to meet, we need to dialogue, we need to accept each other, we need to listen to each other," Diallo told The Associated Press by telephone. "We need, urgently, to find ourselves around the same table."
Diallo said the unions had been unable to meet among themselves or with colleagues since Friday, making it impossible to discuss their next steps. She said she was not sure she would be able to leave her home in an outlying neighborhood, without a police escort to the planned meeting downtown.
She added that the unions were not willing to change their demands, which they say were ignored when Conte appointed Camara as prime minister.
"We stay behind our draft agreement which must be respected," she said.
Diallo asked the international community to step in to help Guinea resolve its crisis.
Medical officials and witnesses said at least 27 people were killed in the first three days of protests _ most of those deaths in the capital from gunshot wounds.
The U.S. Embassy ordered all family members of staff to leave Guinea and urged private U.S. citizens to leave as well. The embassy flew out about 25 people on a U.S. government plane to Dakar, Senegal. The U.S. government also sent a military team of about 20 people into Guinea to increase embassy security, according to U.S. European command.
Conakry's airport reopened late Tuesday for an Air France flight _ the first commercial plane to fly since the fighting started Saturday. The airport appeared to be operating normally by Wednesday.
Opposition leaders say the ailing president has let corruption overrun Guinea as people struggle to meet basic needs.
Guinea's 10 million people are impoverished and many live without the most basic public services, even though the country has half the world's reserves of bauxite, used to produce aluminum.
Conte said martial law will continue through Feb. 23.
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Associated Press writers Abou Bakr and Heidi Vogt in Conakry, Guinea, contributed to this report.
