Document #1183332
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
On February 1996, a revolt of approximately
2,000 soldiers asking for "higher pay and better working
conditions" was reported in Conakry (Africa News Feb.
1996). Fifteen officers were formally "arrested and charged with
attacking state security, murder and destruction of public
buildings" (Africa Research Bulletin June 1996, 12281).
This report further states that Commander Gbago Zoumanigui, former
Minister of Youth and Sport, and one of the presumed main
instigators of the aborted coup d'état took refuge in Libya
after fleeing to Burkina Faso, but that Lieutenant Lamine Diarra,
the other leader of the mutiny, who had taken refuge in the Malian
embassy in Conakry, was handed over to the authorities with
assurances that he " will enjoy all the guarantees of a transparent
and fair judiciary (ibid.).
Another report by Africa Research
Bulletin states that on 9 August 1996, forty of the prisoners
held in connection with the mutiny were released on account of
insufficient evidence (Sept. 1996, 12379). In mid-January 1998 a
lawyer for several of the accused soldiers held in the Conakry
central prison since the mutiny, claimed that they had been
secretly transferred to various other prisons in the country
without their lawyers' knowledge ( ibid. Jan. 1998, 12984). The
report further states that fifty-seven soldiers and officers were
still in detention (ibid., 12984).
Fifty-three detainees held in connection
with the mutiny had reportedly written a letter to Parliament
complaining that their superiors were still at large while soldiers
who had remained on duty "to contain the damage" had been arrested
for "undermining state security, murder and destruction" (West
Africa 22 Dec. 1997 - 11 Jan.1998, 1999). The source does not
indicate in which prison the 53 are held.
The detainees further alleged that former
commander of the Alpha Yaya Barracks, Seny Bangoura, executed three
days after the mutiny, had taken part in the mutiny. The officers
who are reportedly still at large include Colonel Ibrahima Sory
Diallo, head of the Army General Staff now Chief of Staff of the
Armed Forces; Colonel Abdouramane Kaba, Chief of the Gendarmerie
General Staff; Sama Panival Bangoura, commander of the Alpha Yaya
Diallo Barracks; Mohamed Lamine Traoré, cabinet Director for
Defence of the Presidency; and Oumah Soumah, former Chief of Staff
of the Armed Forces (ibid.).
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
References
Africa Research Bulletin: Political,
Social and Cultural Series [Oxford]. January 1998. Vol. 35.
No. 1. "Guinea."
_____. September 1996. Vol. 33. No. 8.
"Guinea."
_____. June 1996. Vol. 33. No. 5.
"Guinea."
Africa News. February 1996.
"Guinea Army Rebellion Leaves 50 Dead." (NEXIS)
West Africa [London]. 22
December 1997 - 11 January 1998. "Guinea: Senior Officers
Accused."
Information on the treatment of the Peul by
the present government could not be found among the sources
currently available to the Research Directorate.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
Sources Consulted
Africa Confidential [London].
Weekly
Africa Research Bulletin: Political,
Social and Cultural Series [London]. Monthly.
Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices for 1997.1998.
Keesing's Record of World
Events [Cambridge]. 1997-1998.
New African [London].
Monthly.
Political Handbook of the
World: 1997. Edited by Arthur S. Banks. Binghamton, NY: CAS
Publications.
West Africa [London].
Weekly.
Electronic sources: IRB Databases,
LEXIS/NEXIS, Internet, REFWORLD, World News Connection (WNC).
Three oral sources contacted did not provide information on the requested subject