Amid riots and military reprisals, union leaders in Guinea (West Africa) are now demanding that the country's dictator, President Lansana Conte, step down after failing to keep his word in the agreement which ended last month's strike.
The strike has been renewed; there have been armed gangs in the streets; offices and villas have been sacked; military troops have fired into crowds. Conte has declared what I've seen variously called a "state of emergency", "martial law", and a "state of siege". According to the BBC, "[u]nder Guinean law, a state of emergency prohibits all public gatherings and imposes a strict curfew, while giving the military expanded powers."
At least 27 and possibly close to 100 people may have already been killed in the renewed violence.
Those unacquainted with Guinea are invited to look here and here (note: loads video).
More on the current situation below the fold.
More background on last month's strike is here and here.
From the BBC:
The unions called off last month's 18-day strike after Mr Conte promised to hand powers to a prime minister.
But they renewed the strike action call after saying the man named on Friday for the post, Eugene Camara, was too close to Mr Conte.
Dressed in traditional robes, Mr Conte appeared on national television and radio to announce that the unrest amounted to a "state of siege".
"Orders have been given to the heads of the armed forces to take all necessary measures to re-establish public order and protect the people of Guinea from a civil war," he said.
Camara has been a member of Conte's government for several years and has held the post of minister of presidential affairs.
From the UK Guardian:
The violence started Saturday following Conte's appointment of a close ally from his Cabinet as prime minister. The move angered many who said he sidestepped a power-sharing agreement by naming a confidant, and angry youths took to the streets, throwing stones and burning tires.
"I satisfactorily fulfilled all points of the demands. In spite of this goodwill, badly intentioned people restarted the union movement to ridicule the authority of the State," Conte said in the broadcast.
Yet union leaders called for Conte's resignation and restarted a general strike Monday.
[...]
Groups of youths armed with machetes and sabers marched in suburban streets, shouting for change in protests that were broadcast by Guinea's FM Liberty radio station. Security forces blocked roads leading into the center of Conakry, where the government is based.
At least 11 people died in Saturday's violence, according to medical officials and witnesses. Sixteen more bodies of people killed in the fighting were brought to Conakry's main morgue Monday, said Hassan Bah, the director of the city's Ignace Deen hospital.
Leaders of the political opposition put Saturday's figure at more than 30 and Conakry's League of Human Rights said it had tallied 57 deaths in the interior of the country from reports by its local representatives.
The president of Guinea's national assembly called for union and community leaders to return to negotiations with the government, according to a statement read on FM Liberty.
The station switched to music broadcasts from news during the day after a raid by government forces.
"They broke our console, took our microphones and computers," journalist Ibrahima Diallo said. The station's chief and a technician were arrested, he said.
More BBC:
The BBC's Will Ross in Conakry says security forces are stopping people from crossing the 30 November bridge, which leads to the city's administrative centre.
Some 50 people were killed here last month when security forces opened fire.
Aminata Koroma, a resident of the capital's Dixinn suburb, said she had heard gunfire.
"I see from my window a thick black smoke rising above the stadium. They must be burning tyres. I also hear shooting from time to time," she told the AP news agency.
No international flights have landed in Conakry since Saturday and observers say many neighbourhoods remain deserted.
Our reporter says protesters have ransacked a police station in the southern town of Guekedou and demonstrators are also out on the streets of other towns.
[...]
"We don't recognise this prime minister, and anyway, it is no longer a question of the prime minister," said Ibrahima Fofana, the secretary-general of the Guinea Workers Union.
"With the strike that will restart tomorrow [Monday], we are asking for the departure, pure and simple, of President Lansana Conte."
Our reporter says the capital was in chaos on Saturday after protesters went on the rampage, ransacking government offices and the homes of government ministers.
The French Foreign Ministry says it is following the situation "extremely closely" and has urged all parties to exercise restraint.
Guinea is formerly a French colony. When the French left, they took most of the administrative infrastructure with them -- including all the country's records -- and left Guinea on its own to try to organize a government and economy.
The country does have many resources, but they have remained under control of a government which has done nothing to alleviate the extreme poverty of the Guinean people.
Crossposted at My Left Wing