Military group: Guinea elections by end of 2010

[December 24, 2008]  CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) -- A military-led group sent tanks through Guinea's capital on Wednesday and said it would hold power for two years after initially promising elections within 60 days.

The National Council for Democracy and Development announced Tuesday that it had seized control of the West African country after the death of its longtime dictator.

The prime minister who served under strongman Lansana Conte maintained Wednesday that he remained in power. But soldiers loyal to the coup plotters circulated through Conakry in tanks and jeeps armed with rocket launchers. The troops carried machine guns and wore military uniforms and red berets.

"The National Council for Democracy and Development has no ambition of staying in power," Capt. Moussa Camara, the group's spokesman, said on state radio. "We are here to promote the organization of credible and transparent presidential elections by the end of December 2010."

A day earlier, in his first address to the nation, Camara had said that elections would be organized within 60 days.

Guinea is the world's largest producer of bauxite, used to produce aluminum, and also has gold, diamonds and iron ore deposits. The nation, located at the confluence of several West African rivers, could generate enough electricity to power the region, some analysts say.

But Guinea's economy has rapidly deteriorated and its 10 million people are among the world's poorest. A food exporter at independence from France, Guinea started importing food as it became crippled by corruption, inflation and high unemployment.

State radio has been in the hands of the renegade soldiers since Tuesday, when they first moved tanks into the capital. Leaders of the military group have also announced a 32-member interim government made up of 26 military members and six civilians

Camara also accused Guinea's embattled government of bringing in foreign mercenaries to help regain control of the country, but did not say which country they came from or where they were supposedly entering Guinea.

Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location that his government remains in control and that the mercenary claim was bogus.

"It's idiotic -- no, it's not true at all," said Souare who has not been able to communicate directly with the population since the dissident troops seized the state's TV and radio stations. "We are still in control and we are trying to normalize the situation. We have no intention of bringing in mercenaries. In fact, we haven't even asked our own armed forces to intervene," he said.

The African Union was holding emergency talks Wednesday on Guinea and has said that "this seizure of power constitutes a flagrant violation of the Guinean constitution." The constitution calls for the National Assembly speaker to take interim power after Conte.

Conte first took power in a 1984 military coup after the death of his predecessor. As a post-Cold War democracy wave swept the continent, he formed a political party and won elections in 1993. He was re-elected in 1998 and 2003, but all the elections were viewed as fraudulent. Conte also changed the country's constitution to eliminate term limits.

For years, Guineans complained but saw stability as preferable to the bloody civil wars in neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia, or the fighting in Ivory Coast. But his unpopularity grew in his final years as the economy deteriorated.

Regional experts have long warned that Conte's death or ouster could send it into turmoil. Conte, who was believed to be in his 70s, was Guinea's second president since it gained independence from France a half-century ago

Jean-Herve Jezequel, a West Africa scholar in France, warned Tuesday of a "real risk of violence in Conakry."

"Much will depend on whether another strongman emerges or not in the coming days," said Jezequel, who works for the MSF Foundation, linked to the aid group Doctors Without Borders.

Richard Moncrieff, West Africa project director for International Crisis Group, said no successor to Conte had been groomed and no one could legitimately step up without elections.

The most serious recent challenge to Conte's rule came two years ago as demonstrators called for him to step down and Guinea descended into chaos. Conte responded by declaring martial law and sent tanks into the streets of the capital. Security forces killed dozens of demonstrators.

[Associated Press; By ABOU BAKR and RUKMINI CALLIMACHI]

Associated Press writers Maseco Conde in Conakry, Guinea; Angela Charlton in Paris; and Katy Pownall in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report. Callimachi contributed to the report from Bamako, Mali.

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