I wrote yesterday about the ongoing general strike in Guinea (West Africa) in: "It is God who gives power" - Demonstrators killed in Guinea.
The past couple of days have been quiet there, and there is a sense of cautious optimism:
President Lansana Conte agreed in principle late on Wednesday to name a consensus premier, the key demand of unions staging the nationwide stoppage in which more than 40 people have been killed in street protests, mediators said.
"For the majority of Guineans, it is a huge relief. We were on the brink of catastrophe in this country," said Ansoumane Djessira Conde, a resident in the Camayenne suburb which saw some of the worst violence. "Finally the president has understood that he cannot simply act in isolation.
Below the fold:
A friend of mine with close ties to Guinea has written an account of the effects of the Conte regime and of the loss the recent violence has brought to one of her friends there.
Guinea: The Forgotten Country by Mardi Kendall
I have been watching and helping my friends in Guinea, West Africa for many years, as I struggle to set up a documentary about a country few have heard of. When I first went there in 2000, the overall cultural verve and exuberance were palatable, and I longed to show the world these proud people surviving in a despotic regime never knowing where the next meal would come from, but surviving like grass that finds its way up through the pavement.
In the last two weeks, that fragile balance fell apart. The entire country has risen up to topple the regime of President Lansana Conte, and every man, woman, child, union official, and miner, has taken to the streets in protest, even though street protests were outlawed. They marched because their staple food, rice, has been too expensive to buy for a long time, and education and medical care are out of reach.
Conte has been president since 1984, when his military took control. He maintains power through the military, and has done nothing for Guinea, while his many wives and children thrive in luxury. In every book I’ve read about Africa, it has said that Guinea could be the richest country there, as it has copious amount of bauxite, iron ore, water for agriculture, gold, and diamonds.
Yet it took the slaughter of dozens of people for this situation to even make the news on the Internet. On Monday, in cities and villages all over Guinea the people of Guinea took to the streets in the thousands. Their main demand was for the aging and very ill president to step down. Many crowds were composed largely of women and children. And all over Guinea, the military fired into the crowds.
I have been speaking daily with my friends there, and sending all the money I can muster to keep them alive. My friend Idrissa Sylla told me that they were living like animals, with no water, food or electricity, in horrible unsanitary conditions. It has been stiflingly hot. They have been cooped up in their houses, too afraid to move. Then they couldn’t contain themselves anymore and flooded out into the streets, even as President Conte steadfastly maintained that God put him into office and that others should wait their turn.
Idrissa was shot in the leg, and his little brother of twelve was shot in the heart. Yesterday, as Idrissa struggled to find medicine for his festering leg, they went to the morgue to find his brother's little body, stepping over the dead and the blood, amidst the crowds of wailing and weeping relatives.
Idrissa has only recently gotten out of jail, where he was tortured. He went there for demanding that a friend receive a passport, that it was his right. His family found a visiting lawyer from Senegal to get him out, and again, my pitifully small donation was the difference between life and death. Idrissa’s best friend died just after he too was released from prison, broken and starving from his treatment there.
I fear for my friend’s sanity. It is too much for one person to bear, and yet his story is being repeated all over Guinea. While we have Iraq endlessly battered into our brains, people like Idrissa are quietly being broken, and "leaders" like Conte are allowed to thrive.
This is the third strike by the people in a year, and Guinea is supposed to be the bulwark of stability for the region, which has seen wars in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Guinea-Bissau.
I know we are overloaded with the insanity of the world at every step, but a whole country brave enough to die and starve and stand up to tyranny? This should not be overlooked.