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Guinea pledges to cooperate with UN inquiry
Conakry (AFP) Oct 19, 2009 Guinea's isolated military junta has pledged to cooperate with a United Nations inquiry into last month's massacre of opposition demonstrators, the UN official leading the probe said Monday. UN envoy Haile Menkerios was speaking after talks in Conakry with top junta officials, including military ruler Moussa Dadis Camara and Prime Minister Kabine Komara. "The prime minister and the president (Dadis Camara) have reassured me that they are ready to cooperate with this commission of inquiry," said Menkerios, welcoming the junta's willingness to "speak with the international community". The UN envoy "asked for the sincere cooperation of the authorities, security for the team of investigators and for documentation to be made available," a source close to Sunday's talks said. Menkerios said on Monday that UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon was "ready to speed up the arrival of a team of investigators to Guinea", without giving further details. He left later on Monday after meeting with senior European, Russian and US diplomats in Conakry to discuss the current situation in Guinea. The UN assistant secretary general for political affairs is the highest-ranking international diplomat to have visited the country since troops entered a football stadium ob September 28 month and opened fire on opposition demonstrators, killing at least 150, according to a UN estimate. The junta says 56 civilians died His visit comes amid growing international pressure on Camara, an army captain who seized power in the mineral-rich West African state in December last year within hours of the death of strongman Lansana Conte. The International Criminal Court will hold a separate preliminary inquiry to determine if war crimes had been committed, the source said. Regional economic bloc ECOWAS imposed an arms embargo at the weekend, but the more powerful African Union pulled back from ordering sanctions after Camara flouted a Saturday deadline to renounce his candidature for presidential elections to be held in January. "Legally speaking, the deadline has expired but politically, we are still working to put pressure on the junta. It's the result that matters most," said Ramtane Lamamra, the AU's top peace and security official. He said the AU would await a signal from its mediator on Guinea, Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, to see if the junta would change its position. "If he tells us that they are sticking to their guns, then sanctions will be enforced," Lamamra added. The junta has meanwhile set up its own 31-member independent commission of inquiry into the massacre, which prime minister Komara said would work in tandem with the UN probe. The opposition have rejected invitations to sit on the local commission. Meanwhile, Guinea authorities turned away six French television journalists at Conakry airport at the weekend, their employers said Sunday. According to press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, several Guinean journalists have received death threats for "giving information to foreigners". Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Guinea junta facing international probe over massacreAddis Ababa (AFP) Oct 14, 2009 Guinea faced intense pressure Wednesday over a massacre at an opposition rally, with an international court announcing a probe of the killings that an EU official called a crime against humanity. Some two weeks after the massacre at the rally in the capital Conakry which rights groups say killed more than 150 people, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague confirmed it was invest ... read more |
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