Vol. 71/No. 7      February 19, 2007

Conté, a former army colonel, seized power in a coup shortly after the death in 1984 of the country’s first president and independence leader Ahmed Sékou Touré.

Officials of the country’s two main union federations, the Guinean Workers Union (USTG) and the National Confederation of Guinean Workers (CNTG), had demanded that Conté step aside but have accepted the compromise. No prime minister has yet been named by the president

Hundreds of Guineans living in the United States rallied here outside the White House and marched to the World Bank on January 25. Rally organizers said they hoped to pressure Washington and other governments to “help bring democracy to Guinea.” Some protesters carried signs with photos of Conté and former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, equating the two.

Most demonstrators carried signs demanding Conté’s resignation and condemning the killing by the military of protesters in Conakry, the capital, and other Guinean cities.

“Conditions in the country have become intolerable,” said Lamin Diallo, one of the rally organizers. Diallo said nine buses had come from New York, three buses each from Boston and Ohio, and several cars and vans from Atlanta, and the metropolitan area surrounding Washington.

“Conté has squandered the wealth of the country,” Diallo said. “The regime is getting fat from the bauxite, gold, diamonds, and other minerals while the people don’t even have running water.”

Prices for alumina, which is extracted from bauxite, jumped 76 percent in Europe in January to $360 a metric ton, reported the Bloomberg News Service. While the price fell 3.4 percent on the London Metal Exchange it still stood at $2,700 a ton. During the strike, alumina prices rose 7.2 percent. Officials at the Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee (CBG), the state bauxite company, said CBG lost about $1 million a day.

The U.S. company Alcoa, and its Canadian rival Alcan, both own stakes in CBG.

Despite its mineral resources, Guinea is among the poorest countries in Africa. The agreement to end the strike capped the price of gasoline and diesel at 4,300 Guinean francs (US 72 cents) per liter, and at 97,500 GF (US$16) for a 110-pound sack of rice. The government also agreed to stop food exports in order to increase food supplies. A provision that all assets of foreign mining companies operating in the country, including Alcoa, Alcan, and Russia’s RUSAL, be located in Guinea would be negotiated by the new prime minister.

The agreement has been signed by the head of the Supreme Court and the national assembly, union leaders, and a representative of business groups but has not been given Conté’s official seal of approval, reported Reuters.

Amadou Troaré, a 31-year-old construction worker, came here for the January 25 rally from Columbus, Ohio. “Conté must be brought to justice for the people killed by the military,” Troaré said. Guinea’s Health Ministry reported that 59 people were killed during the strike, according to the United Nations press agency. The president of Guinea’s Human Rights League put the figure at 90 dead and 300 injured.

There is no provision in the tentative agreement for an investigation into the deaths. Union leaders are demanding that January 22 be recognized as a “national day of remembrance and reconciliation” for those killed. According to the country’s health ministry, 44 were killed that day during a march in Conakry.  
 
 
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