Protests in Guinea over new PM kill at least 8
Source: Reuters
(Adds government official, paragraph 4, updates toll) By Saliou Samb CONAKRY, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Protests erupted in towns across Guinea on Saturday, killing at least eight people, as union leaders vowed to resume a crippling general strike after President Lansana Conte named an old ally as prime minister. Conte's opponents said Eugene Camara, a senior member of the ruling party named prime minister on Friday, was too close to the presidential clan to be a trustworthy head of government. Demonstrators erected burning barricades and tried to attack local government offices in towns from the oceanside capital, Conakry, to Nzerekore, some 500 km (310 miles) away in the remote southeast, clashing with security forces as they did so. "We risk having to declare a state of emergency because the situation has virtually turned into an insurrection," a senior government official told Reuters, asking not to be named. Unions, who say Conte is no longer fit to rule after 23 years in power, had given the president until Monday to name a new premier, as he agreed to do in a deal struck two weeks ago to end an 18-day nationwide stoppage. "We cannot go against the will of the people. The president has made a choice which suits him but does not suit the people," said Boubacar Biro Barry, one of the unions' main negotiators. "We contest this choice and the strike order launched as of Monday is maintained," he told Reuters. Residents in the Bonfi suburb of Conakry said the security forces had killed a civilian and injured another when they opened fire on youths who started stoning a passing convoy they believed to be the presidential cortege. Looters smashed their way into shops in some parts of the sprawling oceanside city while rocks and the charred remains of barricades littered main streets in the suburbs. At least two people were killed in Kankan, an opposition stronghold more than 450 km (280 miles) east of Conakry, when a volunteer military police officer opened fire on demonstrators before himself being beaten and burned to death, residents said. Two people were killed in Faranah, 300 km (190 miles) east of Conakry, while a local government official in Kindia, 100 km northeast of the capital, said between three and five civilians had been shot dead when they tried to storm a prison. BAUXITE INDUSTRY THREATENED The last strike led to food shortages and triggered violent protests against Conte's rule in towns across the former French colony. Rights campaigners say at least 90 people were killed in the unrest, most of them shot by police and soldiers. Unions had demanded the new prime minister be free from the graft allegations that have tainted Conte's administrations. "We asked for a clean prime minister. Instead of that we get an old man from the old guard who is too close to the current power structure," said Louis Mbemba Soumah, secretary-general of the SNECG teachers' union. Several international flights into Conakry were cancelled because of the unrest while one expatriate worker in the city said some foreign mining firms in the world's top bauxite exporter were drawing up evacuation plans for foreign staff. The last nationwide stoppage halted output and shipments of bauxite, costing the national bauxite company CBG -- run by U.S. aluminium giant Alcoa <AA.N> through a venture with Canada's Alcan <AL.TO> -- $1 million a day. Youths in the town of Boke, some 200 km (125 miles) north of Conakry, set fire to cars and motorbikes shortly after Camara's nomination was announced, residents said. In Camara's home region around the southern town of Nzerekore, initial celebrations at the promotion of a local boy also turned violent as demonstrators set fire to the mayor's office and clashed with police, residents said.
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