Guinea leader sacks right-hand man, strike goes on
Source: Reuters
(Recasts with president dismissing key minister) By Nick Tattersall and Saliou Samb CONAKRY, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Guinean President Lansana Conte dismissed his right-hand man on Friday in an apparent bid to ease a crippling general strike but unions in the West African country said the move was not enough to end the crisis. Conte replaced Fode Bangoura, minister in charge of presidential affairs and a powerful member of his ethnic Sousou clique, with Planning Minister Eugene Camara, seen as a moderate member of his government. Union leaders called the industrial action, which has paralysed the country for 10 straight days, because they say Conte, a reclusive diabetic in his 70s, is unfit to rule and should step aside. "We have nothing against Mr Camara, but at this stage of the crisis this decree is totally insufficient," union negotiator Ousmane Souare told Reuters. "The strike goes on until further notice." The strike, which has triggered deadly violence in towns around the country, poses the toughest challenge yet to Conte's 23-year rule and threatens to throw the former French colony into turmoil, diplomats and analysts say. Groups of youths stood on otherwise-deserted streets among charred remains of barricades in parts of the tense capital, Conakry, on Friday, watched by riot police brandishing tear gas launchers. A nine-year-old girl was hit in the stomach by a stray bullet when the security forces fired into the air to disperse youths in the suburb of Hamdallaye-Concasseur, residents said. At least four people have been killed as security forces clashed with protesters across the country. The violence spread on Friday to Kissidougou, more than 500 km (300 miles) southeast of Conakry, where at least one person was killed. Unrest had been reported in around a dozen towns around the bauxite-producing country, a diplomat in the capital said. "The people will accept neither negotiation nor compromise with Conte, nor a revolution in the palace by generals," said a pamphlet being handed out on the backstreets of the largely dilapidated oceanside capital. "The Guinean population want only a total victory: the end of the regime and a transitional government of national unity." POPULAR REVOLT" With no obvious successor and a fractious military, Conte's ailing health has long caused fears of a violent power struggle. Analysts say the latest unrest may be hard for him to weather if left unresolved for long. "The strike could definitely lead toward a power shift in the immediate future, and seems to be headed toward a popular revolt already in Labe, Pita (some 250 km northeast of Conakry), and possibly the eastern suburbs of Conakry," said Mike McGovern, a West Africa specialist at Yale University. "If other towns in the interior like Kankan, Guekedou and N'Zerekore follow suit, the balance of power will have begun to tip quite dramatically," he told Reuters. Strike leaders say Conte is too sick and erratic to rule, citing a spate of confused cabinet reshuffles and his intervention to free from jail two ex-allies accused of graft. The opposition dismissed his promotion of Camara, a veteran politician who is a senior member of Conte's ruling party but not an ethnic Sousou, as little more than a gesture. "How can he name a man as weak (as Camara) to that job in a moment of crisis? The real problem is not somebody else, but Conte himself," opposition spokesman Mamadou Ba said. Whether an eventual transition turns violent will depend largely on the army, whose most senior officers are loyalists of Conte's generation, but which also contains many younger officers eager for change, they say. See also GUINEA-MINERALS/STRIKE [nL19313239]
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