Cautious relief as Guinea awaits PM to end strike
Source: Reuters
(Adds talks, ECOWAS statement, details, paragraphs 4,6,9) By Nick Tattersall and Saliou Samb CONAKRY, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Guineans waited with a mixture of caution and relief on Thursday for the nomination of a new prime minister, a move they hope will end a general strike which has paralysed the West African country for two weeks. President Lansana Conte agreed in principle late on Wednesday to name a consensus premier, the key demand of unions staging the nationwide stoppage in which more than 40 people have been killed in street protests, mediators said. "For the majority of Guineans, it is a huge relief. We were on the brink of catastrophe in this country," said Ansoumane Djessira Conde, a resident in the Camayenne suburb which saw some of the worst violence. "Finally the president has understood that he cannot simply act in isolation. Union and business leaders and representatives of political parties, state institutions and the national assembly held talks to decide on the name of a premier to propose to the president. There is no obvious favourite and diplomats say any appointee may struggle to end the political crisis as long as Conte's family continues to influence government affairs. At one point, a crowd of excited residents took to the streets of the central Boulbinet neighbourhood, cheering and shouting, following a false rumour a new premier had been named. The two-week-old strike has halted shipments of bauxite from the world's top exporter of the ore used to make aluminium, and triggered food shortages in the oceanside capital Conakry as markets and banks remain shuttered. Huge queues formed at fuel stations on Thursday as cars and pedestrians ventured back onto the streets after protests which the security forces quashed by opening fire, killing at least 33 in Conakry alone on Monday, filling hospitals with wounded. "Any loss of life is regrettable but the killing of unarmed civilians is particularly unacceptable," regional bloc ECOWAS said in a statement urging a negotiated settlement. STRIKE GOES ON Union chiefs welcomed Conte's readiness to consider a consensus prime minister as a positive step towards ending the crisis, but said they would need to see concrete action before lifting their protest, the third of its kind in a year. "We have to have guarantees because there is a lack of confidence," said Louis Mbemba Soumah, secretary-general of the SNECG teachers' union. "We are drawing up a document to define the prime minister's role and we will insist that there is no more interference (from Conte) in government affairs," he said. Union leaders called the stoppage after Conte intervened to free from jail two former allies accused of graft, and after a series of sudden and chaotic cabinet reshuffles. They say the president, a chain-smoking, reclusive diabetic in his 70s, has become increasingly erratic in his 23-year rule over the former French colony, whose nearly 10 million people live in poverty despite the country's mineral riches. Conte's clan-based rule has been founded on army support since he seized power in a 1984 coup. "The myth of Conte has been broken," said Mohamed Francois Falcone, head of the state anti-graft agency in a country ranked Africa's most corrupt by watchdog Transparency International. Souleymane Diallo, publication director of the widely-respected satirical newspaper the Lynx, agreed. "Elections have always been fixed, there has been no way for the people to express themselves," he said. "This time there was a sea of opposition. Everybody rose up to say enough is enough ... When the streets are burning, the regime can no longer ignore it."
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