Former Liberian rebels participated in a recent bloody crackdown on an opposition rally in Guinea by the country’s military, sources from the army, the opposition and a rights group have said.
The massacre that the UN and rights group say led to more than 150 deaths occurred on Sept. 28 when soldiers opened fire at a crowded stadium in Guinea’s capital.
“It was the presidential guard ... with elements from ULIMO and the NPFL that did that, that massacre,” a military source in Conakry said on condition of anonymity, referring to the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), a rebel group that fought in that country’s brutal civil war and the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebels that were led by ex-Liberian president and former warlord Charles Taylor.
“ULIMO members currently surround the head of the junta, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara,” the military source said, adding that ex-NPFL fighters were simply looking to work as mercenaries.
“That’s why they have no pity,” the source said.
Camara seized power in December last year after the death of Guinean strongman Lansana Conte, who had ruled the resource-rich country since 1984.
Conte had supported the creation of ULIMO and oversaw training of some of its members in Guinea, which neighbors Liberia.
Meanwhile, residents of Guinea Forestiere — an area near Liberia’s border — fought on the side of Taylor’s rebels in the 1989 to 2003 war. Many soldiers recruited since Camara took power come from the same region, the source said.
The military source’s claims backed up similar accusations made by opposition members and a rights group official.
One opposition leader, Jean-Marie Dore, claimed at least two of the soldiers who beat him during the crackdown were ULIMO members. He said they carried the same types of charms and necklaces that ULIMO members were known for.
Dore had supported the NPFL during Liberia’s war.
“One told me, ‘We’ve been looking for you for a long time ... I’m going to kill you with two bullets in the head,’” Dore said. “His friend said, ‘No, we have to cut his throat.’”
Another opposition leader, Francois Lonseny Fall, said, “we have never seen such a massacre in Guinea,” with the violence including women being raped with guns and sticks.
“It recalls the techniques used in Liberia,” he said.
Mamadi Kaba, Guinea coordinator for African rights group RADDHO, said a civilian working in a military camp has alleged there were signs Liberian rebels participated in the killings.
“He told us that there were soldiers covered in gris-gris [charms], like during the war in Liberia, who spoke English between them or a local language, and that he has since seen them at a camp in Conakry,” Kaba said.
Camara, who has apologized for the massacre, recently denied claims that Liberian rebels had been recruited.
“I have never recruited men, rebels,” he told Radio France Internationale. “I have never done it.”
Guinea’s government disputes the toll for the massacre given by rights groups, saying 56 people died and 934 people were injured.
Local human rights organizations say in addition to the death toll, 1,200 people were injured including many women who were raped by soldiers during the crackdown.
Liberia was ravaged by its civil war, which left more than 250,000 people dead.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
Cook Islands officials yesterday said they had discussed seabed minerals research with China as the small Pacific island mulls deep-sea mining of its waters. The self-governing country of 17,000 people — a former colony of close partner New Zealand — has licensed three companies to explore the seabed for nodules rich in metals such as nickel and cobalt, which are used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Despite issuing the five-year exploration licenses in 2022, the Cook Islands government said it would not decide whether to harvest the potato-sized nodules until it has assessed environmental and other impacts. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown
RSS