21 December 2009

Purges in Guinea?

There's word that opposition protesters have been disappearing, and at least 100 people may be buried in mass graves there.

Families here have collected the names, addresses and photographs of at least 108 people who were killed when soldiers opened fire on a protest almost three months ago, but whose bodies were never returned. Some were taken to hospital morgues and later removed by the military, witnesses told The Associated Press. Others were loaded into military trucks at the stadium which left in the direction of the capital's main military barracks.

They are believed to be buried in the mass graves dug after one of the modern world's worst massacres by government forces on their own people.

'I saw my son lying in the morgue. I touched his body,' says Mohamed Bah, whose 19-year-old son was shot. 'But since that day, I haven't seen him. His body is with the government.'

The mass graves are one more sign of the instability that is rocking this bauxite-rich West African nation of 10 million people, where president Capt. Moussa 'Dadis' Camara was shot at by his own presidential guard earlier this month.


Hey look, it's not sexy like the hi-tech toys in Afghanistan, but it's still a problem on the ground, and sooner or later someone's going to have to go clean it up.

By: Brant

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