Guinea strike could end Sat after PM powers deal
Source: Reuters
(Recasts with accord on premier's powers) By Nick Tattersall and Saliou Samb CONAKRY, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A general strike in Guinea which has paralysed the West African country for 17 days could be suspended on Saturday after President Lansana Conte agreed on powers for a new prime minister, union bosses said on Friday. The strike was launched on Jan. 10 to challenge the 23-year rule of Conte, a reclusive, chain-smoking diabetic in his 70s. Street clashes between police and soldiers and strike supporters have killed at least 60 people, rights campaigners say, and the stoppage has halted most bauxite shipments by the world's top exporter of the aluminium ore. But after three days of deadlocked talks, government and union negotiators appeared to have made a breakthrough. "He (Conte) has accepted the principle of a Prime Minister who is head of government. We are satisfied. It was the most important point for us," Amadou Diallo, assistant secretary- general of the National Confederation of Guinean Workers (CNTG), told reporters. Diallo said accords still had to be worked out on unions' demands for lower fuel and rice prices, but he was confident. "This should go quickly. The strike could be suspended from tomorrow," he said. Other union leaders echoed this prediction as supporters cheered and shouted "freedom, freedom". Unions had been demanding that Conte, who has ruled Guinea since seizing power in a 1984 coup, agree to the appointment of a new prime minister -- still to be named -- with powers to hire and fire ministers. But government negotiators had argued such an appointment would be unconstitutional because Guinea's basic law gives the president alone the right to name and dismiss ministers. One civil society group had threatened new protests from Monday unless the key powers issue was resolved. "We have to have a prime minister who can really take decisions," said Rabiatou Sira Diallo, head of the Confederation of Guinean Workers. Conte's clan-based rule has been founded on the support of the army since he took control of the former French colony. But diplomats doubt a consensus prime minister will do much to bring about change as long as Conte's family and its allies continue to meddle in government affairs. DEATH TOLL COULD RISE The strike, the third in a year, had triggered street battles in Conakry and other towns between protesters and police and soldiers who often opened fire to disperse them. "We've reached 60 people dead," Thierno Maadjou Sow, president of Guinea's human rights league, told Reuters. "Our teams are still on the ground and it could be more because not all those killed were taken to the morgue." Initial estimates from hospital officials and witnesses put the nationwide toll at more than 40 after the bloodiest day of protests on Monday, when security forces fired on demonstrators marching on the administrative centre of Conakry. Some of those wounded had since died while deaths in outlying suburbs and towns had taken time to be registered, Sow said. Government spokesman Moussa Solano said on national radio the official toll was 35 dead and 150 injured. Strike leaders say Conte is no longer fit to govern, citing his ailing health, a string of confused cabinet reshuffles, and his personal intervention to free from jail two former allies accused of graft. Hospitals have been struggling to cope with the numbers of wounded. The World Food Programme (WFP) said it and other agencies had been asked to provide food for the injured.
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