Guinea’s new transitional government should take concrete steps to ensure redress for victims of the September 2009 massacre of more than 150 opposition supporters in a stadium in the capital, Conakry. The government should also locate the bodies of those still missing and suspend officials implicated in the massacre and its aftermath.
The killing and rape of hundreds of opposition supporters on September 28, 2009, by Guinean security forces are likely to amount to crimes against humanity. Accountability for the attacks is key to addressing Guinea’s ongoing political crisis, which deepened following a December 3 shootout involving the country’s coup leader and his aide de camp, both implicated in the September violence.
Guinea’s military government should immediately release or bring specific charges against the human rights defender Mouctar Diallo. He has been held by the military since November 26, 2009, on what appear to be politically motivated charges.
An in-depth investigation into the September 28, 2009 killings and rapes at a peaceful rally in Conakry, Guinea, has uncovered new evidence that the massacre and widespread sexual violence were organized and were committed largely by the elite Presidential Guard, commonly known as the “red berets.”
Guinean authorities should immediately free all those detained without charge following the bloody crackdown on an opposition rally on September 28, 2009, or charge them with a specific criminal offense followed by a fair trial. Human Rights Watch also supported the call by ECOWAS to establish an international commission of inquiry into the violence, in which an estimated 150 or more demonstrators were killed.
Guinean security forces should immediately cease violent attacks on demonstrators protesting against the military government. The government should hold accountable security forces responsible for firing upon and killing dozens of generally peaceful demonstrators in the Guinean capital, Conakry, on September 28, 2009.
Guinea’s coup government should respect the rights of demonstrators and end intimidation and threats against those who express dissent. Opposition politicians and at least one human rights activist who have criticized the presumed candidacy of the coup leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, for the upcoming presidential elections have been threatened in recent days.
United States President Barack Obama should use his visit to Ghana on July 10 and 11, 2009 to encourage its new president, John Atta Mills, to take a leadership position in Africa on issues of democracy and justice.
Respect for human rights by the coup government that took power six months ago has been undermined by arbitrary arrests and detentions, restrictions on political activity, unpunished criminal acts by the military, calls for vigilante justice, and disappointing progress in organizing elections.
