By Kemo Cham
The rights watch dog Amnesty International has called on Guinean authorities to address mounting human rights violations amidst ongoing protests by pro-democracy activists in the country.
Guinea has been on the cusps of civil unrests over the last four years after elections in 2015 when President Alpha Conde was re-elected for his second and final term. Since those disputed elections, public discontents have been growing in the face of the deteriorating socio-economic situation in the country.
But the situation worsened in the last one month - October/November - since campaigners mounted resistance against a reported attempt by President Conde to amend the constitution to allow him run for a third term.
The Guinean constitution provides for a President to serve for only two five-year terms. Mr Conde, in office since 2010, is expected to step down after elections that are expected next year.
According to a report by Amnesty International released on Wednesday, November 13th, atleast 70 protestors and bystanders have been killed since January 2015. The report titled: Guinea: Red flags ahead of the 2020 presidential election, recounts how journalists were targeted and notes that 109 deaths have been recorded among detainees, as a result of poor prison conditions. Three members of the security forces have also been reported killed during the period.
At least 59 of the victims, according to the report, appear to have been killed by the police and gendarmerie. They include a 7-year-old child who, according to medical sources, was hit by a stray bullet in October 2015.
The report also revealed that hundreds of people, including children as young as four years old, have been injured by security forces using live ammunition, batons and tear gas canisters.
One of the young victims, 10-year-old Mamadou Hady Barry, was hit in the back by a bullet as he was returning home from Koranic school in Conakry on 13 November 2018, the report says. He suffered severe injuries which have left him unable to walk.
“This is an affront to human rights and a brutal attempt by the Guinean authorities to silence dissent,” said Marie-Evelyne Petrus Barry, Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa Director.
“The authorities must do everything in their power to defuse tensions, protect human rights and save lives before, during and after the next elections. We call on President Condé’s government to end its rule of fear and repression by amending the legislation on the use of force to deal with public assemblies and removing military armed forces from protest areas,” she added.
The 27-page report also documented the killing of Amadou Boukariou Baldé a student who was beaten to death by gendarmes deployed to disperse a demonstration at the University of Labé in central Guinea on 31 May 2019.
“The Guinean authorities must address mounting human rights violations, including the killing of protesters, bans on peaceful assemblies and attacks on dissenting voices, which threaten to get worse ahead of the 2020 presidential election,” the UK based rights watchdog said in the report.
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 7 million people who campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all. It says its vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards.
The Amnesty report also comes as Guinea prepares to face the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in January 2020. The report assesses the human rights situation since the last UPR in January 2015 and it showed that there are a lot of gray areas the country is falling short in. The organization said the report is meant specifically for submission to the UPR.
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