DAKAR, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Recently a commercial billboard near Guinea's presidential palace featured three towering question marks on a white background. That image matches the way many Guineans describe their country's current condition, eight months after Moussa Dadis Camara came to power in a bloodless coup: utter uncertainty.

When Camara took power citizens poured into the streets cheering; Guineans say they were celebrating a rupture with the 24-year regime of Lansana Conté.

"We hate that the military has taken power again," a Guinean told IRIN the day of the coup. "But we hate it less than we hated the Conté regime."

Now many Guineans are wondering where the Camara government – which calls itself the National Council for Democracy and Development – is taking the country. Here is a timeline of some events since independence from France in 1958.

23 August 2009 – Coalition of civil society organizations, unions, political parties, religious groups call on Guineans not to allow junta "to confiscate power"

19 August 2009 – Junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara tells journalists whether he runs for president is "in the hands of God"

17 August 2009 – Ruling National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD) accepts recommendation by civil society organizations, political parties, unions and religious groups to hold presidential election in January 2010, legislative election in March 2010

13 August 2009 – Junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara announces the formation of a national transitional council, called for by national and international groups in March

June 2009 – Following debate over the feasibility of holding elections in 2009, civil society organizations, political parties, religious groups and unions form a committee to evaluate election timetable

March 2009 – International community calls on CNDD to work with political parties, civil society organizations, unions to form a transitional council

March 2009 – Ruling CNDD says it will hold presidential election by end of 2009

February 2009 – Junta arrests son of deceased president Lansana Conté, Ousmane Conté, as part of a crackdown on suspected drug traffickers

January 2009 – The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) rejects a military-led transition in Guinea and bars junta members from attending meetings of any decision-making bodies

January 2009 – An international contact group on Guinea is formed, including representatives of ECOWAS, the African Union Commission, the European Union, the Mano River Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the UN Security Council

25 December 2008 – Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souaré and other government officials turn themselves in at Alpha Yaya Diallo army barracks, CNDD headquarters

25 December 2008 – Moussa Dadis Camara announces presidential elections would be held after a two-year transition and he would not be a candidate

24 December 2008 – Moussa Dadis Camara proclaims himself president and head of the new National Council for Democracy and Development

23 December 2008 – In the early morning hours government officials announce that President Lansana Conté died the previous evening; confusion reigns as soldiers announce on state media they have dissolved government and taken over, while Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souaré insists the government is intact

June 2008 – Police launch protests over salary arrears, provoking deadly clashes with military

May 2008 – Soldiers mutiny over pay, with several soldiers and civilians killed or injured in the unrest; Lansana Conté eventually dismisses defence minister

May 2008 – Lansana Conté sacks Prime Minister Lansana Kouyaté and names political ally Ahmed Tidiane Souaré , in a move Human Rights Watch said dealt "a serious blow to hopes that mass protest and 'people power' could bring reform"

May 2007 – Soldiers stage protests over salary arrears and living conditions

February 2007 – Following strike and unrest Lansana Conté names Lansana Kouyaté as "consensus" prime minister

January 2007 – In January Guineans massively heed another union call for a national strike; hundreds are killed in crackdown by military

2006 – Union-led national strikes paralyse country; several students are killed by security forces in protests over cancelled exams

2005 – Presidential motorcade of Lansana Conté fired upon in the capital Conakry

2003 – Lansana Conté re-elected in an opposition-boycotted poll

2001 – A referendum changes the constitution to allow president to run for a third term and increase the term from five to seven years; opposition rejects the vote as rigged, calls for boycott

2000-01 – Guinean army fights off incursions by rebels at borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone

1998 – Lansana Conté wins presidential election, which opposition denounces as rigged

1996 – Army mutiny. Loyalist troops eventually repulse attacks on the presidential palace

1993 – Lansana Conté wins Guinea's first multi-party election, which is boycotted by opposition groups and marred by demonstrations

1990 – Guineans vote for new constitution, with a call to end one-party military rule

1989 – Conflict in neighbouring Liberia forces thousands to flee into Guinea; between 1989 and 2002 Guinea would receive some 750,000 refugees from the wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, thousands more from Côte d'Ivoire after that country's 2002 rebellion

1984 – President Ahmed Sékou Touré dies in March; Lansana Conté takes power in a coup in April

1970 – Dissidents attack Guinea in an unsuccessful attempt to bring down President Ahmed Sékou Touré; the incident is seen as intensifying Touré's repression of opponents

1965 – President Ahmed Sékou Touré cuts relations with colonial power France, until 1975

1958 – Independence, with Ahmed Sékou Touré as president

np/ic/pt

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org

IRIN news