AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA
PRESS RELEASE
Sept. 30, 2009

Details of Brutal Attack in Guinea Includes Public Rapes of Women, Deliberate Killings by Soldiers, Says Amnesty International

Presidential Guard Said to Have Supervised Assaults

(New York) -- Amnesty International said today that the brutal attacks committed on Monday by security forces in Guinea -- including public rapes of women and deliberate killings -- were organized by army officers and members of the Presidential Guard or "red berets" were observed supervising the assaults. Amnesty International is calling for an international commission of inquiry to investigate the human rights violations carried out in Conakry. Several witnesses reported the presence of a government minister among the security forces during the attacks. One witness told Amnesty International: “A young person, aged about 18, wearing a Lacoste t-shirt and blue jeans, fell, other people trampled him underfoot, he tried to get up, he hit the ground and moved his head. A soldier asked for him to be ’finished off’ and another soldier took out a dagger and cut his throat.”

“The perpetrators of these brutal attacks must be identified and brought to justice,” said Erwin van der Borght, director of Amnesty International’s Africa Program. “This can only be achieved through an international inquiry as the Guinean authorities have already been discredited by their lack of political will to carry out a national investigation into accusations of human rights violations by security forces in 2007.”

Eyewitnesses told the human rights organization that several women were publicly raped by soldiers, including “red berets” - the Presidential Guard. Sources revealed to Amnesty International that many of the victims were killed by the Guinean security forces, who were deliberately ‘shooting to kill’.

One source told Amnesty International: “I saw bodies hit in the chest and head, some were shot in the back. Many were hit at close range.”

One of the demonstrators told Amnesty International: “The soldiers ripped the skirts off the women, leaving them naked. They hit them with truncheons and Kalashnikovs. I saw two soldiers throw a woman on to the ground and publicly rape her in view of the demonstrators. I was afraid. I saw a soldier rape a naked woman with his truncheon.” Another witness added that he saw a soldier pouring beer on a woman the soldier had just raped.

According to several eyewitness statements gathered by Amnesty International, the attacks were organized by army officers. Witnesses said that several members of the presidential guard were present and supervised the repression. One of them told Amnesty International that these officers “pointed their fingers at the demonstrators and cried ‘shoot them’.”

Several witnesses reported the presence of a government minister among the security forces.

Amnesty International is calling for an international commission of inquiry to investigate. The organization also called for an immediate halt to all supplies of security and police equipment to the Guinean government until it has taken practical steps to prevent violations by the security forces and has brought those responsible for Monday's acts to justice.
One demonstrator told Amnesty International: “The crowd had already entered the stadium. People were assembled on the steps. Soldiers including “red berets,” gendarmes and police officers surrounded the stadium, then small groups of the security forces entered the stadium. They threw tear gas grenades and, hardly ten minutes later, they fired live rounds at the demonstrators, aiming initially at those right in front of them on the pitch.”

Amnesty International has also learned that some people, including women, were arrested during the demonstration and are still being held by the security forces. The organization is concerned that these detainees may by subjected to ill-treatment.

Background Information:

- On September 28, several thousand demonstrators assembled in a Conakry stadium in response to a call by the “Living Forces” (political parties, trade unions and civil society), to show their opposition to the candidacy of the head of the junta, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, in the presidential elections planned for January 2010. The junta had banned the demonstration on the previous evening but the opposition had maintained its rallying cry.

- Captain Moussa Dadis Camara took power in a coup after the death of President Lansana Conté in December 2008.

- This excessive and deliberate use of force is the habitual response of the Guinean authorities when their power is contested. During the last ten years, the Guinean security forces have regularly fired live rounds at peaceful demonstrators who were demanding political and social reforms. In 2007, more than 130 people were killed and more than 1,500 wounded during the violent repression of demonstrations, most of which were peaceful. Despite the creation of a commission of inquiry, it never started work and nobody responsible for these acts has been punished or brought to justice.

- Only provisional details have been received about the number of people killed and wounded on 28 September. Amnesty International is continuing to collect information about those killed, women raped in public, protesters beaten and injured and missing persons.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and woArks to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

Please visit www.amnestyusa.org for more information.

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